Minister of State for Education Suwaiba Ahmad expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the National Examinations Council’s computer based Senior School Certificate Examination after monitoring the exercise at Redeemers Teap School and Anglican Girls’ Grammar School in Abuja, calling it a major step toward eliminating examination malpractice.
Ahmad said candidates at both centres told her they preferred the computer based format to traditional paper exams, confirming they had not seen the questions beforehand and that each candidate answered a different set of questions randomly, with no technical glitches and exams starting on schedule. I spoke with a lot of the students and most of them said they prefer the CBT examination, she said, they also confirmed that they had not seen the examination questions before the test and that each candidate answered a different set of questions randomly, the CBT makes communication between candidates impossible and is one of the best ways of tackling examination malpractice. She called the successful CBT deployment significant progress but said government will only move to a full transition once adequate infrastructure exists nationwide. We will not begin the full transition until we have everything in place because we do not want to put any student at a disadvantage, she said, we are working with the National Assembly, state governors, private partners and other stakeholders to provide the facilities required for a seamless nationwide transition, adding that CBT adoption should ultimately improve education quality by promoting merit and integrity in examinations.
NECO Registrar Ibrahim Wushishi said the council recorded no technical hitch since the examination began. They assured me that since the commencement of this year’s examination, they did not experience any technical glitch, he said, the exams were ready, they started on time, no hiccups, no network problems, nothing like that. He disclosed that 1,378,048 candidates registered for this year’s Senior School Certificate Examination, with female candidates slightly outnumbering males, a trend he linked to the impact of government policies promoting girl child education, and said NECO operates about 10 CBT centres in the FCT, with results expected by the first week of September to support the 2026 admission process. He reaffirmed that question randomisation under the CBT system has greatly reduced opportunities for malpractice while strengthening the credibility of the examination process.
