The Federal Government has revealed that privately-owned Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres and others belonging to public institutions would be fully deployed in the conduct of school-based Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) by next year.
Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, made this known after monitoring a pilot CBT SSCE conducted by National Examinations Council, NECO, at Sascon International School, Maitama, on Tuesday in Abuja.
Alausa, who hailed NECO for the seamless conduct of the pilot phase of the CBT SSCE, said that future school-based SSCEs would be moved to designated CBT centres, rather than being 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 is going to 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 in our economy.
“They will create jobs. You see a lot of computers, hardware, and software. And more importantly, we have entrepreneurs in Nigeria that 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 that President Bola Tinubu is unleashing in every sector of his economy.”
Alausa further commended NECO for its preparedness to fully transition to CBT, noting that the pilot was a demonstration of capacity and commitment to reform.
“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.
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 of this year, both NECO and WAEC objective exams will be full 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 added.