Nigeria going full-CBT mode for WAEC, NECO exams is in order —Obaji, ex-Minister

Professor Chinwe Obaji is the first female Nigeria’s Minister of Education. She shares in this exclusive interview with TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE her thoughts and perspectives on why Nigerians should not always blame government for lapses in the education sector leaving out other stakeholders especially parents and students, among other issues. Excerpts:

WHAT is your view about Nigeria migrating from paper and pen examinations such as May\June SSCE to a full Computer-Based Test mode for the secondary school students?  

The Computer-Based Testing (CBT) examination is desirable and a welcome development in Nigeria. It is only that we need to prepare well for its smooth operation. The Federal Government had been proposing CBT exam for UTME as far back as 2005-2006. Then, we thought we could not do the CBT exam without the student having access to a laptop for them to get conversant with the device. I was the Minister of Education then and wanted to partner an international body to drive it. We projected about one million laptops first but our plan was that if we were able to deploy laptops in 2007 starting with our JSS1 students, we should be able to get somewhere reasonably by 2013. That is a five-year window for every Nigeria’s child, especially from that level of education to know how to use a laptop. The idea was to migrate from paper and pen examination to the CBT mode. We believe that the CBT examinations have their own merits. Also, we found out that laptops would cost us just about $100 each that time and that they would come in green, white, green colours.

Unfortunately, by the time I left the office in 2006, the people who came after me did not continue with the idea. The laptops, even though they were made for Nigeria, found their way in Libya, Ghana, and Rwanda, and the rest of them.

Rwanda deployed its laptop project in 2007, and the initial ones the country started with were in Nigerian green, white and green colour. By 2013 or so, the Joint Admissions Matriculations Board (JAMB) introduced a CBT examination and made it optional with the Paper and Pencil mode. Many people criticised it that it would not work, but it did work and JAMB migrated to full CBT examination some two years later.

Even at that, we still have some children today who have not seen a computer before, let alone have access to it until the day of their exam.

Even in places like Abuja, which is the capital city of the country, we can imagine what the situation will look like in the villages. So, for the school-based Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO), we can conduct them using the CBT mode. It is only that students have to be prepared for it just like I have said. Other stakeholders that are involved, government at both state and federal levels, private school owners and parents should also key into the migration and give it necessary support.

Let the children have access to computers and laptops with educational contents. Let them be doing CBT exams so that they will be conversant with the concept prior to the time they will sit for SSCE or any other important exams. So, for me, I subscribe to the development.

You just mentioned that some students especially in the villages have never seen the computer let alone used it before, would you then say Nigeria is truly ripe for CBT examination?

It is true that some children don’t have access to computers because I do monitor national exams on my own in Abuja and observe this, but then, we can all do something based on our respective capacities  to ensure adequate preparation for the examination. So, starting it now is a welcome development.

What is your reaction to the tech glitches students are experiencing during national exams?

What I will say is that we will continue to improve in all these things. Technology can fail at times and that does not mean we shouldn’t use it. After all, we experience technology glitches at our personal levels. At least, people do hack into our social media accounts and solicit for money from unsuspecting individuals on my contacts almost every other day. In situations like this, how many people do we cry to? Is it because it is not personal that we are seeing it as a big deal? We should all know that nothing is static in life but dynamic. The situation, the culture and everything is dynamic.

We can’t continue to complain and be murmuring. Whatever we don’t do today we will still come back to it tomorrow. So we need to do something meaningful and practical today for the benefit of every one of us.

Originally, we were writing everything down on paper. Then, through the era of industrial revolution, we started using typewriters. Later we migrated to computers and today we are using laptops, phones and all manner of tech devices.

So, that JAMB or WAEC experienced a glitch shouldn’t make them to be criticised unnecessarily. They will adjust and improve with the system to get to where we are going.

What is your reaction to the recurring poor performance among Nigerian candidates in WASSCE, especially when compared with their peers from Ghana who have been consistently winning the WAEC International Excellence Awards despite Nigeria making up to 70 percent of the total candidates sitting for the examination yearly?

The mistake we usually make is that we are fond of looking at the shortcomings. What is our population compared to that of Ghana and other three member countries of WAEC? It is very huge, but I want to say we don’t have any other country but Nigeria. The way we try to condemn every little thing and blame the government is not good. It will run us down as a nation.

Are you saying Nigerians should just accept whatever happens without questioning or holding anybody accountable?

That is not what I’m saying but that everybody should do what is expected of him or her. Yes, the government has lots of roles to play so also every other stakeholder to make things work well.

So, as the government is held accountable, parents and students should also be held accountable. Everybody including family should be held accountable at whatever level we all operate. I hope you will agree with me that the home values, church and mosque values and that of schools and the larger society have all been broken down and that is the reflection of what we are seeing today.

 I believe you know that nowadays, parents aid examination malpractice. You see them patronising miracle centres and bribing teachers and the rest so that their children can get grades they don’t deserve.  That is the kind of country we are. We should ask ourselves if it were the government operating miracle centres.  Parents are the first teachers of any child and so they and their children should be held accountable for most of the lapses in our education sector.

Then, what is your reaction to the recent seven-year ban imposed by the Federal Government on the establishment of new federal universities in the country?

 The ban is also a great move. For me, there is no need for the establishment of a new public university. Nigeria at the moment has about 286 universities-public and private with many of them having low students’ enrolment and academic staff, among other challenges. It is uncalled for that every Senator or House of Reps member for example will be putting up a Bill for the establishment of one university or the other in their villages without bothering about their viability.

The teachers are not in many of the existing ones and so also the students. Even the fact that Nigeria has a high number of students sitting for UTME each year doesn’t mean that many of those students are actually tertiary education materials.

In 2005, when I was the Minister of Education for example, Nigeria had only 75 universities and based on the carrying capacity of all of them, we found out that we couldn’t admit more than 148,000 students out of about 1.3 million who sat for UTME and were seeking admission into all the 75 universities.

We directed each university to conduct its own post-UTME screening so as to ascertain those who were eligible for admission among them. At the end of the exercise, they sent their results back to the ministry and we found out that only about 80 percent of that number really fit for admission. You can see the wide margin between those who sat the examination and those were truly qualified for admission and that is how it is every year. So, it is better we allow the existing universities to thrive first. So, the ban is a good one. Though, the minister only addressed federal universities because education is on the concurrent List.

Don’t you think laying emphasis on paper qualifications, especially university degrees over skills is a major factor responsible for the yearly upsurge of university admission seekers in the country?

 The craze for university degrees is really another problem we are confronted with in Nigeria. That is why I also like what the minister is doing in the sector. Now, he is placing emphasis on skills acquisition through the technical and vocational education (TVET). This is what we really need now as a country just as it is with every other country. What can you do to add value to the socio-economic development of your country and all that and not what type of certificate you have? If we look at some of our challenges as a country today, especially on insecurity and poverty, lack of requisite skills that can make people economically engaged is one of the major causes.

That is why I say it is not about the number of graduates we are producing each year that matters but what impacts they can make.  Going to school is good, but it’s not everybody that must acquire university degrees. So, I am excited about the TVET programmes.

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