The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Thursday launched the Computer Based Testing (CBT) for candidates sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME).
Launching the new initiative in Abuja, the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa'i, said it was one of the transformative efforts of the government toward revamping the education sector.
"There are two major objectives of this initiative. First, it is aimed at advancing the nation technologically and the second and the more important goal is to reduce or completely eliminate exam malpractice," Rufa'i said.
She said it was a gradual introduction as candidates had two options where they could choose between the CBT, Paper-Pencil Test(PPT) and Dual Computer-Paper Test (DCPT).
The minister said the new system offered candidates the opportunity to get immediate feedback, get more secured and fair results in line with global best practice.
To end paper and pencil related exams by 2015
She said the other two options, PPT and DCPT, would be open from 2013 to 2015 by the end of which it was expected that all candidates for UTME would be computer literate.
The minister said that only purely computer based examinations would be taken by JAMB candidates and expressed the hope that other examination bodies would toe the line of JAMB.
Announcing the plans, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, said a mass campaign had been lined up to enable stakeholders to understand the advantages of using the system.
Ojerinde said CBT was conceived out of necessity to address issues that had continued to affect the successful conduct of examinations.
He gave an assurance that the initiative would be successful, saying JAMB was working in partnership with other companies that were into computer and Information technology.
He said the system would ensure quality as candidates would be able to defend their certificates anywhere.
Source: News Agency of Nigeria, NAN
Please i need more information on the computer based test. What will it be like? God help us all!
ReplyDeleteHi @Annonymous, you sound scared. Believe me, there really is no reason for you to be afraid. Rather you ought to be happy. If you prepared well, you will surely pass.
DeleteCBTs have actually been around for awhile now, but not in Nigeria, so students from around the world have been using it in exams.
Its the same as the paper based test, EXCEPT that the questions come on on a computer screen and you select answers by clicking just like you click when you are browsing the internet.
The good side is that it EFFECTIVELY removes exam malpractice because the computer will be asking each student different sets of questions from the thousands in its question bank. In reality, 2 students may sit together, but they are actually answering different questions. So nothing like solving questions for anyone.
Note that though the questions may be different, yet every question any candidate will answer will always be at the same level of difficulty for that particular exam. So nobody is cheated at all. Wishing you flying colors, come next year!