The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) exams will be conducted fully through Computer Based Test (CBT) by 2026.
Dr. Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education, disclosed this after monitoring a pilot CBT Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) conducted by NECO at Sascon International School, Maitama, on Tuesday in Abuja.
“WAEC and NECO exams are school-based exams being conducted at their schools. No, we will move away from that,” Alausa said.
“It is going to be like the way Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) exams are being conducted at CBT centres. We have thousands of CBT centres across the nation.
“Those are the centres that we are going to use. It’s not the case that students do not have the facilities. Schools do not have the facilities.
“We have enough people. We also have to expand the value chain of these CBT centres. They should not just be to service JAMB alone.
“They should be able to service WAEC and NECO. The proprietors of these businesses, the owners of these businesses, have invested billions of Naira to set up these CBT centres. So we also have to help develop a new value chain in our economy.
“They will create jobs. You see a lot of computers, hardware, and software. And more importantly, we have entrepreneurs in Nigeria who are creating and developing these solutions. These are homegrown solutions. We should all be proud. Today, we should all stand tall and be proud of what we utilise.
“These are the kinds of opportunities that President Bola Tinubu is unleashing in every sector of his economy.”
Hon. Oboku Oforji, Chairman, House Committee on Basic Exam Bodies said: “The pilot CBT SSCE is a win for digital transformation in education. It is official that WAEC and NECO will begin CBT for objective papers by November 2025 and go fully digital by 2026.
“The Federal Government is working with private and public CBT centres to make this happen nationwide. The future is digital.”
