The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced its intention to use the Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode for some of its examinations in the future.
According to Mr Patrick Areghan, WAEC’s Head of National Office (HNO), the council is already working on implementing CBT for some of its assessments, as part of his vision for the organisation.
He revealed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday, saying that the council’s registrar was also pursuing the same goal in the sub-region.
However, he explained that CBT was not a simple task for WAEC, as there were many challenges and limitations involved.
Areghan said that WAEC had to consider how to conduct CBT for practicals and essay papers, which were not suitable for the computer mode.
He also said that WAEC had to deal with the issue of computer literacy, availability of computer facilities, and access to electricity in many schools.
Areghan said that these factors made it difficult for WAEC to fully adopt CBT, unlike some other examination bodies.
“This is because we ask ourselves, how do we conduct CBT for practicals and essay papers?
“We can only readily do that in the case of objective questions. But so many people will not see it from that angle. They argue that some others are doing it, why can’t WAEC do the same?
“Now, no one even talks about energy; how many schools are exposed to computer literacy? How many have computer facilities, and how many have electricity to run these things?
“Even where you have all these things on the ground, how do you handle the issue of theory and practical papers? So, these are the issues, but that is what I want the council to do in the very near future,”
Areghan added that the council should be able to conduct CBT examinations for objective questions at least, and that it might have a segregated market for those who preferred the pencil and paper mode.
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