FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PLEDGES INCLUSIVITY IN CBT TRANSITION
04-06-25
By Sadiq Aminu The Minister of State for Education, Professor Suwaiba Ahmad has given assurances that no student, irrespective of location will be excluded in the transition from paper and pen to Computer-Based Testing, CBT in all examinations.
Professor Suwaiba who stated this in Abuja while monitoring the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in some selected schools, emphasised the need to migrate to CBT as the benefits are enormous.
”We’ve been to the centre that they are doing the CBT examination and we have interacted with the students also. And from my interaction with the students, they are happy with the CBT examination and they actually show preference for the CBT examination over the written examination, the manual way we are doing the examination. And now we are at another school where they are doing the manual examination, that is a paper and pencil examination. You can see that there are a lot of hiccups.”
”By the time we come to enroll the CBT examination, we ensure that no student, whether in the rural location, urban location, is put at a disadvantage.” She said.
The Minister also maintained that the CBT method of examination would curb all forms of malpractices.
She explained that arrangements were underway with relevant stakeholders to provide the necessary infrastructure and facilities as well as address other identified challenges such as logistics and administrative lapses ahead of the 2026 deadline for full migration to CBT.
”We are engaging with the state, and also we have a very powerful committee with all the relevant stakeholders as part of that committee. The main essence is to look at all these challenges within the rural locations, urban locations, and also prepare before next year to ensure we identify strategies to mitigate those challenges.”
Professor Suwaiba said the plan was to leverage JAMB’s well-equipped CBT centres for future examinations.
