EWAN Hosts May Dialogue Amid WAEC Exam Hitches, Sparks Debate on CBT Readiness

By Dayo Emmanuel

The Education Writers Association of Nigeria (EWAN) held its May Dialogue on Thursday with a focus on the future of examinations in Nigeria and the recent glitches that marred the ongoing West African Examination Council (WAEC) examinations barely two weeks after the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) conducted a resit examination to correct a hitch in it’s earlier examinations.

In his welcome address, President of EWAN, Mojeed Alabi, expressed concern over the setbacks in the WAEC exams in some states, which he said would negatively affect students.

One of the panelists, Dr. Amos J. Dangut, Head of the National Office of WAEC, addressed the controversies surrounding the examination mishaps.

“I apologise over the conduct of the exams on Wednesday. It’s very unfortunate. I want to appeal for understanding, prayers, and encouragement to be able to conduct credible exams,” he said.

Dangut disclosed that WAEC discovered that the question papers were compromised and had to take swift corrective actions.

“We heard that the paper was compromised. We went back to the board to tackle the issue. We thank God it was sorted. Unfortunately, another issue happened. We had logistic issues and socio-cultural issues in Taraba, Bayelsa, and Ogun states. We tender our apology to Nigerians. I’m using this opportunity to say it will not repeat itself,” he pleaded.

When asked why WAEC did not consider postponing the exam, he explained, “The exam is international. As you are taking it here, other countries are taking it. The majority of centers had no issues. It was just an unforeseen issue.”

On whether the hitch suggests Nigeria is not ready for Computer Based Testing (CBT), he responded, “I want the public to know that this same exam, there are certain centers doing the CBT mode. It is buttressing the clarion call that we should go to the CBT. If you will recall, UTME has been going on. It was just a part of the center that had issues. The pluses of CBT far outweigh the minuses.

“For us at WAEC, we can’t say we have arrived. Teaching is evolving, technology is evolving,” he concluded.

Also reacting to the WAEC hitch, Dr. Dantani I. Wushishi, Registrar and Chief Executive of the National Examination Council (NECO), shared his thoughts.

“I thank EWAN for organizing this all-important conversation. My reaction to what happened to my sister organization touched my heart. Man proposes, God disposes. I know they have been working hard. We work hand in hand, and I know how hardworking they are. Some of these things happen, and what we do not anticipate can block your plans. I join to apologize to Nigerians,” he said.

Wushishi also addressed NECO’s preparedness for CBT.

“WAEC has been conducting exams for 75 years. We know the role they play, and we apologize. On our preparation, I’ll talk from two dimensions — as a university lecturer and as a Nigerian. If you talk about readiness, we are ready. If you look at the word ‘ready,’ it is a dictionary word. It is an adjective. You can’t be fully ready. You need a strategic plan.”

He revealed that NECO has developed a strategic roadmap toward CBT implementation.

“Since I took over, we have achieved a lot of innovations. We have got not less than 12 IT solutions. We drew up a three-year strategic plan, including the conduct of CBT which we want to start in 2027. We need to do an assessment to know the magnitude of what we are doing. What is on ground is a presidential pronouncement. The Minister’s pronouncement requires that NECO must align with the presidential directive and we must fully prepare to carry it out,” he said.

Explaining the infrastructure gap, he said, “We examine and assess over 1.2 million students. If we are going to conduct examination school-based, we need CBT in 26,000 centers. CBT is not only requiring the equipment; we need a lot of infrastructure. How many schools in Nigeria have well-equipped CBT centers? It is near zero. It will require a large amount of money, but it has its advantage over pen-and-paper exams.”

Hajia Binta Abdukadri, Director, Senior Secondary Education and a discussant spoke on the integrity of the examination system and the path to CBT.

“Very fundamental to any education system, I know WAEC has integrity. We are digging into the matter to understand what went wrong. We should be ready. By this time tomorrow, we will be making a presentation. We know that going CBT is the lasting solution. WAEC has started, and in the last meeting, the report we got was that there is zero exam malpractice. We want God to spare our lives to see the outcome,” she said.

“As a government, we are taking responsibility. We need to punish those sabotaging our efforts. I know the organization worked their best. In whatever we do in Nigeria, we have sabotage. Let the law take care of them and punish them, because they have really given us sleepless nights in the last three days.”

A participant, Odinaka, an IT specialist from Texas, USA, posed a critical question: “We have businesses declaring big profits in Nigeria. Is it not possible to partner with corporate organizations?

“Why don’t we build our infrastructure so that students can get results immediately after writing their exams? We shouldn’t be at the teething stage all the time.”

Responding, Wushishi said, “NECO was established by the Federal Government to render service to Nigerians. It was not registered as a business, but it does not mean it cannot collaborate. Certainly, we collaborate to improve our services. The Federal Ministry of Education needs to come in, and we need an MOU to back any agreement.”

He continued, “When the Minister gave the directive, we started town hall meetings and workshops on exam malpractice. Directly, CBT will curb malpractices. As the Registrar of NECO, we have over 2,000 CBT centers. We have not started, but with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, we must go with the presidential directive. We are mapping physical and CBT centers so that candidates can walk into centers close to them. We will implement this for our November/December external exams.”

Professor Mojeed weighed in, saying, “I’ve been in the business of monitoring examination. I almost concluded that JAMB was the best, but that does not take away WAEC’s credibility. We must take preventive measures. There will be saboteurs. We can’t wait till we get 100% readiness. We should be happy CBT is curbing exam malpractices.”

Dr. Ademola Osoba added briefly, “CBT centers should be done in phases.”

Another participant, Ariyo Small, voiced concerns about implementation.

“Our politicians want to level up with their counterparts abroad. They want to ride the cars their counterparts ride. We should not put the cart before the horse. These kids have been in schools without computers, and you want to subject them to CBT? In schools with no desks? You talk about partnership with banks. Banks are taking from Nigerians. Zenith Bank made over 70 million from SMS. Even our education system is not tailored to make people educated. We are killing brilliant students by compelling them to do what they are not accustomed to. National Assembly should do something. We’re not yet there. We have a generation alien to computers. Lagos, Port Harcourt, and other cities are not the entire Nigeria. There are remote places where people don’t even know what a mouse looks like.”

Abdulrasheed Robana provided a technical perspective.

“In a proper CBT, once you finish the exam, you see your result. The idea of CBT is to eliminate human elements. By definition, JAMB and WAEC have not been doing CBT. What JAMB is doing is human interface, not CBT. JAMB exam is adaptive to CBT. WAEC is not adaptive to CBT.”

He argued, “Harvard University invented CBT and even till today, they still do pen-and-paper exams. The only exam that is adaptable to CBT is JAMB. If we change our mode of exam to CBT, we are destroying our education. As an IT person, our infrastructure problem is the least problem. It is not about infrastructure but the mode of examination. A lot of us did our exams on pen and paper and we are still better for it.”