The Nation Newspaper

Tag: CBT

  • JAMB seeks collaboration on CBT

    The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has said continuous collaboration with stakeholders and institutions would strengthen the use of its computer based tests (CBT) for Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME).

    He stated this when he paid a visit to the Chancellor, Victory International Institute of Theology and Education, Prof. Sam Ale in Kwali, Abuja.

    According to him, government alone cannot provide the facilities needed for the administration of examination, stressing the need for partnership with other institutions and credible private institutions.

    Prof. Oloyede said in a statement issued by the institute in Abuja at the weekend that the board would ensure that every unit of CBT centre had 250 units of computers.

    “JAMB would continue to work in collaboration with institutions in an effort to standardize all Computer Based Tests,” he stated.

    The JAMB registrar urged stakeholders in the sector to make contributions as well as sacrifices for national development.

    While commending the management of the institute for providing state of the art facilities for the training of advanced studies candidates, he also expressed the readiness of the board to partner with other institutions.

    Responding, Prof. Ale, expressed the preparedness of the institute to provide an enabling environment for JAMB examinations and training of quality candidates for advanced levels.

    He added that the institute has four schools which are affiliated to various institutions in the country.

  • Foundation prepares Kogi pupils for CBTs

    Al-Azhar Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, has rolled out its free computer based test training as part of its contribution to the overall development of education in the state.

    The exercise, which held at Al-Azhar International College Lokoja, was to ensure that no less than 1,000 pupils in the state were CBT compliant during the first three days of its inauguration.

    Founder and proprietor of Al-Azhar College, Dr Habeeb Yekeen, explained that his love for education, children, excellence, and the people of Kogi State inspired him to work on the exercise tagged: “Get them ready for CBT free training’ programme.”

    His words: “Get it right first time and always’ is not my words; it’s a model, and that is what I take as my personal model. I want the pupils to write UTME once and pass it, so that they don’t have to sit for the examination over and over again.

    “I want to use this training to build confidence in the candidates. I want them to get familiar with the functionalities of computer and the characteristics of JAMB examinations; and that is why we use past JAMB CBT questions to train them, and each of them will have hands-on experience to practically write the examinations.”

    On the cost implication of the facility, he said  aside personnel and power, 150KVA generator is being deployed for the exercise.

    “Setting up the centre is about three or four phases; building the hall itself, the local area network (LAN), furniture and the fourth is the computer system (laptops). The last three will be roughly between N15 and N20 million, but I do this with joy, because I am always very happy when I impact the life of people positively. It is going to be sustained, we have no doubt”.

    Director and Co-ordinator of the foundation Mrs Abiodun Johnson spoke more of the NGO’s activities.

    “It is 100 per cent NGO, but we welcome collaborations from public spirited individuals and organisations. What we are trying to do will go a long way in lifting the children and our society, because it is the way to go and impact,” she said.

    The Director Quality Assurance, Kogi State Ministry of Education, Mr. Babagbale Fehintoluwa, who stood in for the Commissioner of Education, Dr Tolorunleke Sunday, called on the beneficiaries and school principals to grab the opportunity.

    Fehintoluwa assured of more government input for the training programme in subsequent outings.

    He said, “We informed our area offices to bring 10 pupils from across the local governments. That was the initial plan. But we have decided to increase the number because of the facility on ground. What they have on ground can accommodate this.

    “We want to use this forum to inform school principals never to joke with this opportunity. Many pupils fail not because they are not academically sound, but because they are not versed in the new examination technology.”

  • Senate seeks improved funding of JAMB’s CBT

    The Senate has urged federal government to provide adequate funding to the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to allow it improve on its Computer Based Test (CBT).

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory, Senator Dino Melaye, noted that the National Assembly would prevail on the federal government to provide adequate funding for the running of the technology (CBT).

    The senator, who took part in the mock CBT advocacy exercise to sensitive students on the technology by JAMB at the Eagle Square in Abuja, commended the board for introducing the initiative into the educational system.

    Melaye, who was accompanied to the JAMB stand by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Women Affairs, Hajia  Binta Adamu; JAMB Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Professor ‘Dibu Ojerinde and other top officials of the Board toured the various facilities used by the Board for the exercise.

    The CBT demonstration/ advocacy exercise began last Wednesday at the Board’s CBT Centre in Kogo, Bwari Area Council with over 13 secondary schools with 600 students from Secondary School 1 and 2 levels taking the test.

    Head of Public Relations of the Board, Dr Fabian Benjamin, noted that students were the next set of candidates to write the UTME.

    Benjamin added that JAMB did well to bring Nigeria at par with advanced economies through the introduction of the digital technology, which is already in use in other countries.

  • JAMB CBT: Nigeria must move forward with technology

    Following the conduct of the 2016 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), various allegations have been flying around. From the outright ridiculous to the downright untrue, attempts have been made to discredit the Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode of the examination, which replaced the Paper and Pencil Test (PPT), with some protesters even calling the Chief Executive/Registrar of the board, Emeritus Professor Dibu Ojerinde, unprintable names and calling for his sack.

    Is the attempt to discredit CBT and thereby force JAMB to return to the PPT mode, which many have agreed encourages malpractices and which the JAMB Registrar once noted was consuming time, human and financial resources, worthy? Are the protesters justified to ask for the sack of Professor Ojerinde? This is a man who has, in the last nine years at JAMB changed the face of the board and brought a relatively high level of credibility to its examination and, indeed, deployed technology to public examination in such a way that the country’s education sector now has hope.

    What exactly should be the way forward for the Federal Government, which has said the PPT mode would be restored? These and many more were the questions that came to mind in the midst of the orchestrated protests and name-calling that have greeted the 2016 UTME.

    For those who had the privilege of monitoring the conduct of the examination, whatever challenges the examination had, were not in its organisation. In fact, JAMB deserved commendations for the effective deployment of Information and Communication Technology for the examination, which saw to most candidates sitting for the examination in safe and relaxed atmospheres devoid of external influences and disturbances. Of particular interest was the organised manner in which the examination was conducted and the zero allowance for interference or avenues for examination malpractices, as parents and wards as well as external materials were far-removed from the venues of the examination.

    The challenges had begun when the board began the release of the results only about 24 hours after the examination. Some candidates claimed they had different versions of results within hours while mischief-makers went to town with claims of marks being added for some candidates. Some had even gone ahead to claim that JAMB was arbitrarily adding and subtracting marks after the candidates had finished the examination. But can these claims be right? Thank God that the House of Representatives’ Committee on Education has eventually clarified the House’s position and passed a vote of confidence in CBT. The statement of the committee’s chairman, last week, that Nigeria could not afford to return to PPT, more than anything, vindicated Ojerinde, whose brainchild the CBT is.

    Now, if, indeed, the spurious allegations and sponsored protests have any merit, the question those behind the protests should answer is why they want to set Nigeria backward by two decades by calling for the cancellation of CBT and why the needless calls for the sack of the JAMB Registrar. If, indeed, there were challenges with the 2016 UTME, wouldn’t it be more important to address the challenges rather than calling for the cancellation of CBT and the sack of the man who brought it to JAMB?

    A look at JAMB’s operations of the CBT, since its introduction, would reveal that the board has been adhering to the International Test Commission’s2005 version of the International Guidelines on Computer-Based and Internet Delivered Testing. In fact, the board introduced a mechanism to aid candidates who might have challenges with the testing by employing the managed mode of testing, which allows human supervision and control over the test-taking environment. Candidates who took the 2016 CBT would testify to having access to centre supervisors who readily helped with any difficulty relating to the systems and the testing procedure. Therefore, when the protests and the calls for Ojerinde’s sack erupted, one was forced to ask who those behind the protests are. Could it be true that they are the cabals that specialise in malpractices, whose businesses have been destroyed by the JAMB Registrar and his policies at the board?

    Interestingly, South Africa first developed Computer-Based Testing in the 1970s and it has been perfected and deployed over the years and the country adapted the guidelines drawn up by the International Test Commission. Today, that country has gone miles ahead in conducting credible public examinations through CBT. However, Nigeria, which is obviously laid back in terms of technology, only had the opportunity of CBT as late as three years ago when JAMB introduced the mode. When that decision was taken; experts had described it as a blessing to the education sector. It should be noted that many universities had begun to conduct Computer-Based Tests for intending applicants. Apart from Nigerian universities, several Nigerian candidates have had to face international examinations conduct via the internet such as SAT and TOEFL, among others, with many of them only coming in contact with the CBT mode of examination for the first time when they wrote those examinations. Therefore, when JAMB introduced CBT, not a few people had thought it adequate as a testing ground for future examinations in the Computer-Based mode.

    Now, with the position of the House Committee on Education that there would be no going back on CBT, there is hope that the gains recorded by the policy would not be reversed because it had teething problems. But in order to correct anomalies and make the system more efficient, JAMB, the Ministry of Education and others should evaluate the challenges and complaints about the CBT and subsequently improve on it to deliver more efficiently. The Federal Government and the National Assembly must also look at the endless possibilities available in CBT and create legal frameworks to support this mode of examination, so that rather than rue the challenges of the 2016 UTME, we can relish the potential of CBT for the future.

     

    • Alao writes via adealcommunications@gmail.com

  • JAMB hopeful on CBT improvement

    An official of JAMB, Mr. Clement Ojo, says the ongoing UTME, on the all Computer Based Test (CBT) platform, would be improved upon with time.

    Ojo, who is supervising a centre in Yaba, gave this assurance in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.

    According to him, since the total migration of the examination on the CBT platform, it has stemmed incidences of examination malpractices drastically.

    He said that the platform has also proved cost effective and reduced stress for the candidates, their parents and the board generally.

    “Since we started this year’s examination for instance, it has been hitch-free.

    “The candidates themselves are already armed with the schedules of their examination and they come in for the examination and go happily.

    “The development is a far cry from what used to obtain in the past when the Paper Pencil Test (PPT) mode was still in place.

    “With the current development, it can only get better with time as the board will continue to research and deploy more modern technology in ensuring that it sustained global best practices in the conduct of public examinations,’’ he said.

    Ojo said that more than 1.8 million candidates registered for this year’s examination across 400 centres, both within and outside the country.

    The examination, which started on Saturday, Feb. 27, is expected to be concluded on March 15.

  • WAEC rules out adoption of CBT mode of examinations

    WAEC rules out adoption of CBT mode of examinations

    The West African Examination Council (WAEC) says it is not considering adopting a Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode for its examinations.

    Its Head, National Office, Mr Charles Eguridu, made the clarification at an interactive forum with reporters in Abuja.

    Eguridu said it would amount to “intellectual dishonesty’’ for him to say that the council would introduce CBT in the next five years or the near future.

    According to him, the purpose of education is to prepare people for life, not to pass examinations; hence the need to examine different domains which CBT cannot accommodate.

    “There is what we call the cognitive domain; that is what you have learnt that you can put in your head.

    “There is also what we call affective domain that has to do with your emotions.

    `There is also what we call the psychomotor domain that is skills which you can express using your hands and your body.

    “I am yet to see any education expert who will tell you that you can measure the psychomotor domain using CBT.

    “Any test that will use computer to evaluate who will be a good carpenter cannot be a valid test.’’

    He said the examinations conducted by the council took into cognizance the three domains that measured ability to recall, apply and practicalise.

    Eguridu said that in psychomotor domain, candidates did practical tests in agricultural science in the farm and the examiner supervised their actual agricultural practice.

    He said that those doing woodwork were made to carry out physical designs of whatever woodwork assignment they were going to do and evaluated on the outcome of their work.

    The WAEC official said that even Netherlands where people went to learn CBT had yet to apply CBT in all its examinations.
    He said, “In Netherlands which people emulate in CBT, they have not been able to migrate 40 per cent.

    “How many schools in Nigeria have hardware? How many schools in Nigeria have the facilities to have those computers?

    “There is the additional problem of electricity and internet connectivity.

    “What JAMB is doing is commendable because theirs is an admission test; it is a certification examination.’’

    Eguridu said that WAEC was using specialised gadgets in detecting examination malpractice as the device had ability to transmit any irregularity to its data base in Lagos.

    He said that the council had started encrypting the data of candidates in their results to avoid falsification.

    According to him, WAEC has not had any issue of examination leakages in the past five years.

    The WAEC chief also said that the council had reversed itself on withholding of results of candidates in those states that owed it following appeals from the stakeholders.

    He said that the council was still favourably disposed to granting such credit facilities to states being a service rendering organisation.

    Eguridu urged the affected states to pay up their debts in order to keep the council running.

  • NECO to introduce CBT in subsequent exams – Board

    NECO to introduce CBT in subsequent exams – Board

    The National Examination Council (NECO) will introduce Computer-Based Test (CBT) in objective papers of its subsequent examinations, says Dr Paddy Njoku, the Chairman, NECO Governing Board.

    Njoku made this known on Thursday in Abuja during the board’s monitoring visit to the Model Secondary School, Maitama, centre of NECO Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination.

    He said he was impressed with the progress of the examination as students and teachers conducted themselves well.

    The chairman said that the visit was informed by the fact that today’s paper — Mathematics — was compulsory for all the students.

    “We will introduce CBT in papers that need computer in the next exams, but some other subjects are either practical or essay; so you cannot put everything under CBT.

    “Mathematics is compulsory; so the hall will be full; that is why we decided to inspect them today.

    “We do about four levels of monitoring; we have invigilators’ supervisors, security men and external monitors drawn from institutions of higher learning, who independently, monitor without getting involved in the administration of the examination.

    “The board comes out to monitor and get direct assessment of the situation so that nobody tells stories and all these we do to ensure very strict control of our examination.’’

    Njoku said that reports from all over the country indicated that the examination was going on fine.

    He said the performance of students in the examination had improved over the last two years based on students who made five credits, including Mathematics and English.

    According to him, the performance will continue to improve “since the rot created over the years will take some time to fix”.

    He blamed dwindling performance of students on the quality of teachers, adding that efforts were being made to address the problem.

    “ If we do not get the correct materials to teach the students in terms of teacher quality, we do not expect the students to do wonders.

    “We are trying to encourage, in our own way; the authorities to make sure that teachers are properly motivated to produce good students.

    “We have to look at the quality and commitment of teachers and to make sure they are properly trained.

    “It is something that should be done in conjunction with other stakeholders,’’ he said.

    On his part, NECO Registrar, Prof. Abdulrashid Garba, said that in 2016, all objective examinations of the body would be CBT.

    He said he had been visiting schools in various states, adding that the visit to Model Secondary School, Maitama, was the Board’s monitoring.

    “ In the schools visited so far, we have not seen anything that can cause disturbance; it has been complete compliance with the rules of the examination.

    “All centres in Nigeria have been adequately secured; in special areas like Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, extra security measure have also been taken.’’

    Garba said that 975, 991 students were taking the examination nationwide.

    According to him, the results will be released 60 days from the date of the last paper which comes up on July 10

  • NIS Recruitment: Applicants to undergo CBT

    NIS Recruitment: Applicants to undergo CBT

    The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) said Computer-Based Test (CBT) would be used to conduct examinations for applicants of the 2015 recruitment into the service.

    Mr. Chukwuemeka Obua, the Public Relations Officer of the service, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.

    Obua said this was to prevent a reoccurrence of the 2014 recruitment where a stampede was recorded at various centres across the country due to large crowd of applicants.

    He said the CBT would also be used to conduct the examination in order to test the computer literacy level of applicants.

    He said this was a basic requirement for employment into the service.

    “ This is the process that will be adopted for the recruitment in order to prevent the reoccurrence of the past incident. Four or five computer centres will be designated in each state of the federation.

    “ Applicants will be divided according to these centres and they will be communicated online individually the date they are required to sit for the examination and the location in order to prevent over-crowding in centres and cases of non-applicants in attendance,” he said.

    The spokesman said the CBT was a global trend accepted and used worldwide to conduct examinations.

    He said the device was chosen to prevent the rigours associated with paper-based examinations.

    He said that applicants would not be required to bring any writing materials; rather, they would only need their password which was the registration number to log into the computer, answer the test and submit online.

    Obua said after the test, successful applicants would be contacted individually and asked to report to designated immigration offices across the country where they would be further examined.

    “ At this stage, we will do the physical examination to check the height, presence of any physical disabilities and general state of health of applicants to ensure that they are fit to carry out their duties when employed.

    “  Documents of applicants will also be reviewed during the examination after which successful candidates will be contacted online informing them of their acceptance into the service,” he said.

    NAN reports that applications for recruitment into the NIS which commenced on Feb. 9 closed on March 22.

  • Power failure, dearth of computers mar UTME in Bayelsa

    Lack of electricity supply and insufficient computers frustrated the Computer-Based Test (CBT) Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in some of the five approved centres in Bayelsa State yesterday.

    Two of the centres were located at the Niger Delta University (NDU), Amassoma, while others were in Agudama, Yenezue-Gene, and Otuoke.

    Candidates for the examination were stranded and complained about the technical challenges they faced during the exam.

    But state Commandant of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Mr. Desmond Agu ensured adequate security at the centres.

    Agu, who toured most of the centres, praised the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) for adopting the electronic system but observed that most of the challenges were technical.

    “It is one of the mandate of NSCDC to monitor every exam that is conducted in Nigeria. I hail JAMB for making use of this system, but for the technical challenges”, he said.

    He said his men were mandated to check examination misconduct and advised candidates to report to their centres early.

    He said the examination would be conducted from March 10 to March 18.

    But one of the UTME’s technical employee, Mr. James Oladipo said fluctuating power supply was a big challenge.

    “Power failure is an issue and the generator we were provided with trips on and off. So we are trying to rectify it. We believe God will give us the grace to do that”, he said.

    But he said the computers provided for the candidates at the Niger Delta University Centre 1 were enough for the candidates.

    It was observed that the exam, which was supposed to start at 9 am, began two or three hours later in some centres.

    One of the candidates, Masa Terry, while praising the system, said it did not take into cognisance the poor infrastructural development in the country.

    He also said the system was not favourable to candidates from rural areas, who are not conversant with  computers.

    “This is a modern system and it’s good,but for people who came from the village,it is bad because they’ve never used a computer before. The effect of this is mass failure”, he said.

    Another candidate, Ezi Rex, lamented that he could not join the first batch in writing the exam because of insufficient computers.

    “Before initiatives as these are executed, adequate provisions should have been made so that nobody would be embarrassed”, he said.

    Also Mr. Obagua Jonathan, queried  JAMB’s shoddy preparations.

    He said: “They said they were going to use computers, we have been here and the materials are not here for us to write. I have been here for 6 am but this is over 11 am and I have not written because of inadequate computers”.

    JAMB’s state Coordinator  Mr  Joseph Oboh said the candidates were always instructed on modalities for answering questions before the commencement of the exams.

    He said the system was designed to eliminate examination malpractices and to enable candidates get their results in three hours.

  • Kwara trains teachers on CBT

    To arrest mass failure among pupils in computer-based testing (CBT), the Kwara State government has trained scores of secondary schools teachers across the state on CBT dexterity. The teachers are to in turn impact same knowledge on their respective pupils.

    Executive Director, Easi-Prep Nigeria Limited and consultant to the state Ministry of Education on CBT training, Babs Iwarere, spoke to reporters in Ilorin, the state capital, at the end of the week-long exercise.

    Iwarere said: “We discovered that in public schools teachers have not been introduced to computer-based testing and you find out that these students when they graduate encounter problems in writing their Universal Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME), which is now computer-based, used for admission into tertiary institutions.

    “Regardless of the institutions, prospective students have to pass through some pre-admission tests. So, it is necessary that teachers are introduced to these computers so that they can prepare their students adequately for this exercise.

    “Now, we have selected teachers from all the junior and secondary schools across the state. They are about 744 government-owned schools in all.

    “The response from the state ministry of education has been tremendous. The participants after every exercise have been allowed to assess the training and the feedback has been very fantastic. It is encouraging and participants welcome it as a development for them. We are recommending it to other states of the federation particularly government schools.”

    Deputy Director, Information Communications Technology in the state ministry of education, Alhaji Hameed Yinusa, noted that the 21st Century education is drifting towards digital.

    His words: “It (education) has gone digital and if we don’t start with our secondary school students they will not be able to cope when they get to higher institutions. Education is categorised into what we call teaching, learning and assessment. We have to teach digitally and students must learn in digital way, otherwise they will not be able to do the assessment.

    “We are starting in a way that a teacher is being sent from each junior and senior secondary school to the training which is done in the three senatorial districts of the state.”

    A Senior Secondary School teacher from Guasara, Baruten Local Government Area, Musa Halilu, said of the exercise:

    “I happen to be one of the participants of the programme. I am happy to be called to attend the training exercise. I have seen the usefulness of the programme, which will help to train students under us,” he said.

    He urged government to complement the gesture by deploying computer tests in schools.