WAEC rules out adoption of CBT mode of examinations

The West African Examination Council (WAEC) says it is not considering adopting a Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode for its examinations.

Its Head, National Office, Mr Charles Eguridu, made the clarification at an interactive forum with reporters in Abuja.

Eguridu said it would amount to “intellectual dishonesty’’ for him to say that the council would introduce CBT in the next five years or the near future.

According to him, the purpose of education is to prepare people for life, not to pass examinations; hence the need to examine different domains which CBT cannot accommodate.

“There is what we call the cognitive domain; that is what you have learnt that you can put in your head.

“There is also what we call affective domain that has to do with your emotions.

`There is also what we call the psychomotor domain that is skills which you can express using your hands and your body.

“I am yet to see any education expert who will tell you that you can measure the psychomotor domain using CBT.

“Any test that will use computer to evaluate who will be a good carpenter cannot be a valid test.’’

He said the examinations conducted by the council took into cognizance the three domains that measured ability to recall, apply and practicalise.

Eguridu said that in psychomotor domain, candidates did practical tests in agricultural science in the farm and the examiner supervised their actual agricultural practice.

He said that those doing woodwork were made to carry out physical designs of whatever woodwork assignment they were going to do and evaluated on the outcome of their work.

The WAEC official said that even Netherlands where people went to learn CBT had yet to apply CBT in all its examinations.
He said, “In Netherlands which people emulate in CBT, they have not been able to migrate 40 per cent.

“How many schools in Nigeria have hardware? How many schools in Nigeria have the facilities to have those computers?

“There is the additional problem of electricity and internet connectivity.

“What JAMB is doing is commendable because theirs is an admission test; it is a certification examination.’’

Eguridu said that WAEC was using specialised gadgets in detecting examination malpractice as the device had ability to transmit any irregularity to its data base in Lagos.

He said that the council had started encrypting the data of candidates in their results to avoid falsification.

According to him, WAEC has not had any issue of examination leakages in the past five years.

The WAEC chief also said that the council had reversed itself on withholding of results of candidates in those states that owed it following appeals from the stakeholders.

He said that the council was still favourably disposed to granting such credit facilities to states being a service rendering organisation.

Eguridu urged the affected states to pay up their debts in order to keep the council running.