"Waec Plan to Introduce CBT Exam"
Me: This is a case of trouble dey sleep, inyanga go wake am up. (Speaking in Pidgin English)
Introduction
WAEC is an acronym for West African Examination Council. It is an examination body that organises exit exam for exiting high school students.
Registration, sitting and passing the (WAEC) exam shows that the student has successfully completed high school.
There are five countries that sit for the WAEC exam: Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Gambia. The exam is written at the same time across these five(5) West African countries.
A WAEC certificate is a certificate that shows that a student has completed high school. The exam has always been a Paper and Pen Test(PPT) but there are indications that this examination body wants to switch to Computer Based Test(CBT) format.
Personally I don't think that switching to CBT would be successful.Here are my reasons👇👇
1.)Power Supply and ICT Labs:
Apart from Ghana, the other West African countries(Nigeria, Sierra leone, Liberia and the Gambia) that sit for WAEC do NOT have steady electricity. Remember a computer is an electronic device, it needs electricity to work.
On ICT labs, how many secondary(high) schools have a well equipped and functional ICT lab. They are just few. Very few. This means that ONLY a handful of schools would pass the accreditation test. This will result in LESS number of Accredited Exam Centres and the number of candidates is much. Unless they will adopt STAGGERED exams.
2.) The Location:
Although it seems that the population of students in urban areas and that of rural areas across West African countries seem to be 50/50. What becomes of this 50% in the rural areas (ime obodo)??
Some rural areas (ufodu village) do not even have steady NETWORK, even to make a phone call is difficult, let alone taking a computer based exam that requires strong NETWORK in such places. How will they cope?
3.)Computer Literacy:
How many of the SS3 students in rural areas are computer literate. Even some students in urban areas aren't computer literate. In fact, most graduates today aren't even computer literate.
4.)The Number of Candidates Involved:
This is a west African exam. Not just Nigeria. Consider the number of students that sit for Waec across these West African countries. Can this examination body manage this crowd?? Can they provide enough computer sets?? How many schools have a hall that can house these computer sets??
We all know the story of Jamb which has fewer number of candidates. Every year, one problem or another ranging from technical glitch, power outage , students travelling a long distance to reach their examination centres, emergency change of exam venue, etc.
In fact, the Jamb problem is more like an annual festival.
BOTTOM LINE
Waec as an examination body, should first wait for the availability of steady electricity, functional ICT labs in high schools, proper population management, improved ICT awareness/training among others things before diving into a CBT exam. If they, it might lead to mass failure of the candidates.
I know it is not the responsibility of WAEC to fix these issues. It boils down to the government of the day.
NB: I am not saying that we should remain in paper and pencil exams forever. No. Never. But for now, we are not ready for that.
Question
What's your thoughts. Do you think that WAEC is ripe for CBT exam???. Let me have your thoughts