Federal Government of Nigeria has revealed that privately-owned Computer-based Test (CBT) centres and others belonging to public institutions will be deployed next year for the school-based Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE).
The minister of Education Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa stated this after monitoring a pilot CBT SSCE conducted by the National Examinations Council (NECO) at Sascon International School, Maitama, in Abuja yesterday.
Alausa, who hailed NECO for the seamless conduct of the pilot phase of the CBT SSCE, said future school-based SSCEs would be moved to designated CBT centres rather than held within schools.
He said: “WAEC and NECO exams are school-based exams being conducted at their schools. No, we will move away from that. It will be like (the way) JAMB exams are being conducted at CBT centres. We have thousands of CBT centres across the nation.
“Those are the centers that we are going to use. It’s not a case that students do not have the facilities. Schools do not have the facilities. We have enough people. We also have to expand the value chain of these CBT centres. They should not just be to service JAMB alone.
“They should be able to service WAEC and NECO. The proprietors of these businesses, the owners of these businesses, have invested billions of Naira to set up these CBT centres. So, we also have to help develop a new value chain for our economy.
“They will create jobs. You see a lot of computers, hardware, and software. And more importantly, we have entrepreneurs in Nigeria who are creating and developing these solutions. These are homegrown solutions. We should all be proud.
Today, we should all stand tall and be proud of what we utilise. These are the kinds of opportunities President Bola Tinubu unleashes in every sector of his economy.”
He also disclosed a phased rollout of CBT format across all school exams, starting with objective questions this year. “I’m a very happy person today that NECO has transitioned to CBT from paper-based. By November this year, both NECO and WAEC objective exams will be complete CBT.
“And by next year, 2026, all the essays and objective exams will be CBT. NECO and WAEC will be joining the JAMB league. We are making significant progress,” he added.
Fielding questions from newsmen after monitoring the ongoing NECO exam alongside members of the Senate committee on education (basic and secondary) at Government Secondary School, Maitama, the Registrar of NECO,Prof. Ibrahim Dantani Wushishi, expressed the exam body’s readiness for CBT.
He said: “NECO is ready as a professional body to conduct examinations using any medium.
“We may have challenges with infrastructure, which is obvious, but that will not stop us from doing it. There are facilities that will give us the opportunity to conduct CBT, and we are good to go for that. We are all aware that there are certain difficult terrains across the countries where we will not be able to meet up with that, except there are exceptional infrastructures to give us the opportunity to do that.
“But by and large, we are very, very much ready to do that as a professional body, provisional infrastructures. We are calling for the government at the state level to speed up making provisions for CBT infrastructures in their states because that will support the process. Because we believe the process will reduce a lot of issues that have to do with examination malpractice and improve the quality of the examination and consequently, the results and certificates,” he added.
