CBT WASSCE will result in massive failure in the North — Arewa youths

For the upcoming West African Senior School Certificate Examinations in the nation, the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum has demanded that the proposed computer-based examination structure be abandoned.

If this kind of testing is permitted, the forum claims, it will cause widespread student failure, especially in rural areas of northern states where computer literacy is either nonexistent or very poor.

In a statement made public in Kaduna on Friday, Yerima Shettima, the National President of AYCF, claimed that the CBT tests ought to have been optional, giving applicants the choice to select between the computer-based method and the conventional pen-and-paper format.

According to him, this would have given the pupils the freedom to select the format that best suited their skills and comfort level.

Shettima continued, stating that the Forum’s research in a few northern states, including Zamfara, Jigawa, Taraba, Adamawa, Nasarawa, and Plateau, showed that the CBT exams had consistently resulted in students taking public school, where computer skills were not taught, having misleading failure rates.

“Even the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board CBT exams have put disadvantaged students in a difficult situation as they find it difficult to respond to questions in a format that they are not familiar with,” he said.

“Many of the students who did not pass the CBT-based JAMB exams last year claimed that systemic issues, such as inadequate facilities or network outages during the test, were to blame for their results. The issue is further made worse by old desktop PCs that CBT centers fail to maintain and a lack of appropriate and sufficient computer skills.

He said that in order to avoid a high percentage of student failure among those who ought to have fair and equal possibilities for achievement, a call to action became necessary.