Abstract
Registration for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, is organised by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, for admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria. This registration is conducted in all the states in Nigeria in a given period of the year. Many a times, the process is cumbersome, not organized and posses a lot of stress to students. So, the goal of this project is to provide a readily accessible and user-friendly system for students to register for UTME online and also to access the result of the examination online. This would be similar to other online registration forms, but it will also feature the following advantages; as a web-based system, students will be able to have access from any computer that has a web browser and is connected to the Internet to register for UTME, with a graphical interface, this system will be more user-friendly and intuitive to use. The introduction of on-line registration was an enormous improvement over the old, cumbersome paper-based method. In the course of implementing the software, HTML and Visual Basic 6.0 was used to design an online examination registration and result checking form for UTME.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background of the Study
It is obvious globally that most candidates seeking
admission to higher education prefer universities. The Unified Tertiary
Matriculation Examination (UTME), however, will help recruit students to other
kinds of institutions such as the Polytechnic and the College of Education.
Emodi (2010) observed that our higher educational
institutions are confronted with the pressure of an increasing number of
students demanding for access. She stressed that students compete for the
limited places in our universities and that in all countries, admission into
the top institutions have become more difficult to achieve. Emodi therefore
noted that competition has always been a force in institutions of higher
education and that in many ways, it can help to produce excellence and best
performance.
Adedoyin (2009) however canvassed for the approval of more
private tertiary institutions in Nigeria, adding that the number of
Universities in the country was inadequate and cannot satisfy the educational
needs of the Nigeria youths. This assertion is also true and applicable to both
State and Federal Universities in Nigeria, bearing in mind the number of
candidates seeking admission yearly.
The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was
established in Nigeria in 1978. Prior to this, each University was responsible
for the conduct of its own concessional examination and admitted its students.
In 1987, JAMB performed the exemplary feat of printing examination
6
materials in Nigeria. Since then, the Board’s question
papers have always been produced and answer scripts processed in Nigeria-Idoko
(2008). JAMB, which is now (1978-2010) 32years old, celebrated its 30th
anniversary of success (1978-2008) at the Headquarters office, Bwari, Abuja. A
review of JAMB activities after more than thirty years of existence, with the
introduction of UTME is seen as imperative and justifiable.
1.2
Statement of the Problem
Manual registration
and examination processing system in any process or
institution or exam body is always affected by delay, misplacement,
erroneous
entries, etc. Examination registration is highly a critical issue as
students
affected by these lapses may loose one year before they can register
for
another exam. This leads to lost of resources, time, discouragement, and
defeat
in academic pursuit. Going by this, it is evident that for an effective
administration of Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, the
registration
and examination result process has to be online.
1.3
Objectives of the Study
The objective of this project is to examine how unified
tertiary and matriculation examination system can be computerised, with the
main objective being to:
1.
Develop a website that can enable
the JAMB administration to process student‘s registration form.
2.
Design an online examination processing system for UTME
3.
Design a system that will allow
students to check their results online.
1.4
Purpose of the Project
The
purpose of this study is to design an online database for unified tertiary
and
matriculation examination for the purpose of online registration form for
student‘s
examination registration and checking of result online.
1.5
Significance of the Study
Clear advantages of Internet information processing over
those of traditional manual system are higher yields. Online system allows the
users to process information online. There are many other advantages of online
registration for unified tertiary and matriculation examination system and some
of them are listed below.
It
saves a lot of time.
Students
registration data are secured Accuracy of bio data is guaranteed
o It
is very convenient to use.
o Information
processing are very fast.
1.6
Scope of the Study
This
research work covers student‘s examination registration and printing of
registered candidates list online. It also covers post and checking students
result online.
1.7
Limitations
As
a result of time constraints, the researcher was unable to visit JAMB
Headquarter
Abuja to gather information on how they operate the unified tertiary and
matriculation
examination registration. So, most of the information were sourced from JAMB
website and their state office in Enugu.
1.8
Definition of Terms
UTME: unified tertiary and matriculation examination
Competitive
examination is an examination where
candidates are ranked according to their grades
Databases: A systematically arranged collection of computer data,
structured
so that it can be automatically retrieved or manipulated. It is also
called
databank.
File Transfer: Any kind of computer
file can be sent via the Internet from
one Internet user to
another. Table of accounts on spreadsheets, design by a
graphic artists,
music sound files etc, can all be exchanged in this way.
Web Site: A
website is a collection of many interconnected web pages
organized
by a specific college, organization company etc, containing web
pages (good and
commodities) on the Internet.
Examination:
is a set of questions or exercises evaluating skill orknowledge;
“when the test was stolen the professor had to make a new set of
questions”