Date: 2017-05-10

Dr Yakub Saheed, Coordinator of the Academic Excellence Initiative (AEI), Kwara branch, said 104 applicants for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) benefited from a free mock examination organised by the NGO.

Saheed, told newsmen on Tuesday at the venue of the examination, Lamp Bearer Nursery and Primary School, Asa-Dam road, Ilorin, that examination malpractice in the country had taken new dimension.

The Educationist said that the target of the AEI was to prepare students for the UTME and to ensure that those who were not captured in the mock examination organised by JAMB were given another chance. He lamented that some school proprietors and principals were compromising morals, aiding malpractices, hence the need to bring back sanity into the system.

According to him, there is decline in the education sector when compared to what is obtainable before. Saheed observed that there was poor knowledge of ICT among students, saying that knowledge of ICT, however, was integral to succeed in UTME.

He noted that resources were pooled together by members of the group to finance the scheme, which is being replicated across the country.

"Our entire programmes are tailored towards encouraging students' excellence and moral uprightness.

"This is just to contribute our own quota to the development of the education system in the country.

"That is why we organise leadership training programme, youth lectures. "In the past, we've organised pre- Senior Secondary School Examination and many more in the country," he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that students, who engaged in the mock exam had the opportunity to learn intricacies in the use of computer and how to answer examination questions. (NAN)