The House committee on Basic Education on Wednesday in Abuja threw its weight behind the Computer Based Test (CBT) saying the electronic test was in tandem with global dictates to sanitised the education system.
The Chairman House Committee on Basic education, Zamari Mohammed in company of some of the members of the committee stated this when the committee went on fact finding visit to the CBT centre in Bwari for candidates sitting for the rescheduled examination that missed the 2016 UTME due to the relocation of their centres.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) had, in accordance with the promised made Nigerians in ensuring that candidates who missed the 2016 UTME due to their relocation are given equal opportunity to take the rescheduled examination fixed for Wednesday, 23rd March, 2016 conducted in the states.
The conduct of the rescheduled examination which was done in some States of the federation for a single session has over 2000 candidates.
Mohammed who interacted with candidates and journalists stated that the House was in support of the Computer Based Test.
When asked whether he was contradicting the earlier stand of the House on CBT, he said the House has never taken a position on CBT, saying that what brought to the House infractions were during the examination.
He noted that the paper Pencil Test (PPT) was cumbersome and characterized with several irregularities and unwholesome activities. He said “the world is flying and we cannot be crawling”.
He empathetically stated that the House is putting his weight behind CBT given its many advantages.
According to him, those who write the examination outside Nigeria are leveraging on the flexibility and advantage of CBT.
“Today, those candidates are writing a rescheduled examination some of whom are sick because of the flexibility of CBT without which they would not have had this opportunity”, he stated.
The chairman use the opportunity to advise parents to be patient and also to know that the process is not as complex as it was made to be.
Mohammed called on JAMB to identify the hitches and address them.
He said CBT is the way forward, that the House is going to support JAMB in putting infrastructure together to see that the new examination regime is stress free.
The Registrar, Prof Dibu Ojerinde who was elated with the smooth conduct of the rescheduled examination explained that the rescheduled exercise was one of the flexibility of CBT.
He said if not for CBT there is no way the Board could have conducted a rescheduled examination.
Ojerinde told Journalists that the Board major objective is to completely eliminate malpractice through the conduct of CBT.
He disclosed that the Board is not there yet but will be there soon. Ojerinde said the challenges associated with the 2015 exercise has further strengthen the Board’s resolved that CBT is the only way to go. Only CBT has the capacity to address all the challenge of the conduct of public examination in the 21st century.
Ojerinde disclosed that so far over 37% of the candidates scored 200 and above compare to the 32% last year and 59% scored 180 and above compared to the 55% last year.
He pleaded with Nigerians to give CBT a chance, stressing that the 21st century child in Nigeria irrespective of where he or she comes from has no problem with CBT.
“The complexity developed by perpetrators of malpractice can never be detected by Paper and Pencil Test”, Ojerinde stressed.
He however expressed reservation over the proponents of PPT saying they don’t have an inkling on how the Paper Pencil Test was been conducted.
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