The decision of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council of Nigeria (NECO) to embark on the use of Computer-based Test (CBT) for their examinations is about the best decision taken by the exam bodies which will go a long way to address so many nagging problems plaguing the exams in Nigeria.

For instance, the most serious bane of these examinations is the hydra -headed malpractices that continually mar the examinations and gives merits to non-deserving students who then fill up the various higher institutions like a plague. This sad practice which has been on for more than five decades remains a monstrous cankerworm that has eaten very deeply into every fabric of any examination taking place in Nigeria filling up the higher institutions with students without the requisite aptitude for learning so much so that right now, the scourge of unemployable graduates stare everyone in the face.

However, with the planned shift of attention to CBT, Nigeria seems to have found the right antidote that would address the problem of examination malpractices effectively. But Nigeria’s Rome can never be built in a day. It is rather too early to commence the programme this year or even next because learners need to be well-grounded in the idea before it can work smoothly in their final external examinations.

In the light of the above, the government should consider launching the program from Senior Secondary School One (SS1), so that the learners will be well acquainted with it by the time they get to the final class. Picking on the program this year may be quite disastrous because the learners are not used to it just yet and it is bound to take a while before they do so.
• Jide Oyewusi, retired Director of Education is also the Coordinator of Ethics Watch International Nigeria