The West African Examination Council (WAEC) is not considering adopting a Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode for its examinations.
This is contained in a statement made from the National Office, at an interactive forum with the Education Correspondents on Thursday night in Abuja.
The head of WAEC National Office, Mr Charles Eguridu said it would amount to “intellectual dishonesty’’ to say that the council would introduce CBT in the next five years or the near future.
In his view, 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.
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.
