The Registrar, National Examinations Council (NECO), Prof. Ibrahim Wushishi has stated the inability of the examination body which is yet to move from paper based exam to Computer Based Test (CBT) is owing to it complex nature.
Wushishi disclosed this to Journalists in Abuja at an interactive session organised to reel out the council’s achievements, noting that noting that NECO, unlike JAMB examine about 1.5million candidates in 76 different subjects, and over 150 different papers.
The Registrar who assured Nigerians of migration from paper examination to CBT said: ” As far as NECO is concerned, if you look at the nature of our exams particularly in SSCE internal, for admissions into tertiary institutions, every year we examine close to 1.5 million students, which is a large number.
“For this 1.5 million candidates, we examine them in 76 different subjects and more than 150 different papers.
“For JAMB, they are not examining candidates in so many subject areas, so they find it very easy to embrace CBT in their examinations and do multiple choice in their rest,” Wushishi said.
Speaking further, Wushishi explained that migrating would take some time in order not to jeopardise the credibility and acceptability of results to both local and international institutions. Citing that international universities such as Lead University and Birmingham City University in the U.K. slready wrote the council to use its results to apply for those institutions.
“We have to do that gradually and there are some areas in our examination we could start with, like the National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE) which is multiple choice based, but then, we must also look at the nitty gritty of doing that,” he said.
Highlighting some milestones of the council since assumption of office, Wushishi noted that there has been formulation of policies that have brought a positive turn-around in the Council.
Notable among the results of the newly policies formulated include Provision of e-library to enhance access to information and data on educational assessment with a view to enhancing job efficiency in Test Development, Quality Assurance and curbing examination malpractice and other infractions associated with public examinations.
Resuscitation of Staff training workshops in the Council such as: Test Development workshop aimed at training subject officers in Examination Development Department (EDD) on the rudiments of Item development in the various subjects examined by the Council. This will help to improve on staff capacity and efficiency on job description as well as boosting the Item bank of each subject.
Printing backlog of certificates for Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) from 2011-2022, and backlog of certificates for Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) Internal and External from 2018-2021, among many others in the hope to strengthen the examination processes and boost the integrity of the Council.