According to the Federal Government, the National Examinations Council (NECO), West African Examinations Council (WAEC), and other public examination bodies will completely switch from paper-pencil to computer-based tests (CBT) by 2026.
Dr. Olatunji Alausa, Minister of Education, made this statement on Tuesday in Abuja while observing the NECO-conducted pilot CBT Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) at Sascon International School, Maitama. 1,367,210 candidates registered to take part in this year’s school-based SSCE, which NECO said was the highest number to date.
In response to public concerns about the inadequate infrastructure supporting the phase-out of paper-pencil exams, Alausa revealed that both privately owned and public institution-owned CBT centers would be fully utilized for the exams.
In the future, school-based SSCEs will no longer be held in schools but will instead be held at designated CBT centers, according to Alausa, who praised NECO for the smooth execution of the CBT SSCE pilot phase.
“WAEC and NECO exams are school-based exams being conducted at their schools. No, we will move away from that”, he said. “It is going to be like the way JAMB exams are conducted at CBT centres. We have thousands of CBT centres across the nation. “Those are the centres 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 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 in our economy.
“They will create jobs. You see a lot of computer hardware and software. And more importantly, we have entrepreneurs in Nigeria that are creating and developing these solutions. These are home-grown 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 that President Bola Tinubu is unleashing in every sector of his economy.”
Alausa also praised NECO for being ready to make the full switch to CBT, pointing out that the pilot was an example of their ability and dedication to change.
“This is the first in the history of NECO, which is conducting its annual O-Level Certificate exams for SS3 students. This is a pilot that we pushed to have, and I must tell you, I was very impressed with what I saw.
“I have to commend the Registrar of NECO for the hard work that he and his team have deployed to get us to this stage, because when we decided that we’re going to go CBT, everybody thought this was an insurmountable task, but today, we’ve seen that this is a process, this is a transition that is possible.
“We just have to work hard to get there. We cannot continue with this madness of exam malpractice, our exams being caught with cheating and leaked questions—both WAEC and NECO. If we allow this to continue, it will destroy the capacity of our youth, of our children.”
Additionally, he revealed that the CBT format will be gradually implemented into all school exams, beginning this year with objective questions.
“I’m a very happy person today that NECO has transited to CBT from paper-based. By November of this year, both NECO and WAEC objective exams will be fully CBT. “And by next year, 2026, all the essays and objective exams will be CBT. NECO and WAEC will be joining the league of JAMB. We are making significant progress,” he concluded
