The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Said Ahmad, has expressed satisfaction with the ongoing conduct of the Computer-Based West African Senior School Certificate Examination (CBT-WASSCE), describing the exercise as a major success and a significant milestone in Nigeria’s transition to digital examinations.
Speaking on Wednesday, after inspecting CBT and paper-and-pencil examination centres at Government Secondary School, Garki, and Federal Government Boys’ College, Garki, Abuja, the minister said students demonstrated confidence and competence in the use of the CBT platform, while examination officials maintained a conducive and credible environment.
Prof. Ahmad, who interacted directly with candidates during the monitoring exercise, said feedback from students indicated that they were comfortable with the technology and encountered no difficulties navigating the computer-based system.
“I’m happy with what I have seen. This is the first time we are conducting the CBT examination in a government school of this nature, and the students are happy with it.
“I spoke with some of them, and they confirmed they prepared for the examination and had no issues using the computers,” she said.
The minister noted that the CBT centres visited had successfully conducted multiple examination sessions without experiencing any significant technical failures, a development she attributed to extensive pilot testing and software validation carried out before deployment.
According to her, the examination software has so far performed efficiently, with no reported cases of candidates being unable to access questions or complete their examinations due to technical challenges.
“One thing we are sure of is that we carried out extensive pilot testing. From the feedback we received, this is already the seventh paper being written using the CBT platform in some centres, and there have been no technical glitches affecting candidates’ access to examination questions,” she stated.
