Remember shading your answers on the traditional pen-and-paper WAEC exams? Hold on to your seats, folks, because just like JAMB’s leap to CBT, the West African Examinations Council is making the big switch to computer-based testing. But, can we handle this digital uproar?
In a recent announcement on Monday, WAEC declared the farewell to the old-school paper and pencil test model, embracing the Computer-Based Test mode for the Senior School Certificate Examination. However, the big question looms: Are we prepared for this tech move? Let’s face it, hacking into computers hasn’t exactly been Nigeria’s forte, and even the supposedly digital JAMB system has faced its fair share of problems.
“In line with global best practices, the Nigeria National Office of the West African Examinations Council wishes to inform the general public, and all its stakeholders, that it has concluded plans to migrate its WASSCE for Private Candidates Examination Diets from Paper and Pencil Test to Computer Based Examination,” the statement from the body partly read.
However, details about how this transition will roll out remain a mystery. There are concerns: do Nigerian secondary schools, especially in rural areas, have enough functional computers? Will the government step in to provide the necessary resources? These uncertainties leave us with more questions than answers. And let’s not forget, if even the much-praised JAMB CBT faces issues, what does this mean for WAEC’s transition? It’s a digital adventure with a lot of loose ends.
