The West African Examination Council says it is not
considering adopting a Computer-Based Test mode
for its examinations.
Its Head, National Office, Mr Charles Eguridu, made
the clarification at an interactive forum with
education correspondents on Thursday night in
Abuja.
Eguridu said it would amount to ‘intellectual
dishonesty’ for him to say that the council would
introduce CBT in the next five years or in the near
future.
According to him, 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.
The WAEC official said that even Netherlands where
people went to learn CBT had yet to apply CBT in all
its examinations.
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.”
