Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said there is an urgent need for the review of the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) curriculum.
He said the review has become necessary in view of the current global developmental challenges.
Osinbajo said this while declaring open the 70th annual council meeting of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) yesterday in Abuja.
He urged the examination body to adopt the teaching and learning methods of Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE).
According to him, while WAEC encourages learning by a route, the IGCSC incorporates the teaching of core skills, critical thinking, creativity, imagination, problem-solving skills and collaboration.
The Vice President stressed that youths need these essential skills today to be competitive and be prepared for the global economy.
Osinbajo said: “So, it seems to me that in the next few years, WAEC curriculum and examinations and the teaching must be designed to test for and support these four skills.
“Of course, with the successes WAEC has demonstrated in the past 70 years, they are adaptive to innovation, and this shouldn’t pose a problem at all.
“This is the Africa WAEC should prepare our children for; an Africa that would need world-class young people who have strong interpersonal, innovative, entrepreneurial, critical and creative thinking skills, among others.”
The Vice President praised WAEC for the technological innovations the examination had been implemented so far, including biometric verification, online registration, computer-based tests (CBTs) and digital certification.
He stressed that it was crucial for WAEC to continue to embrace technology.
According to him, a key aspect of the technological advancement in examination that WAEC must implement is the online examinations.
He said: “Of course, the issue here is the availability of the digital infrastructure that will be able to carry this type of innovation. This is the business of the government and the private sector. But we must begin to think about this, which is a shift from offline to online.”
Education Minister Adamu Adamu expressed displeasure over the prevalence of examination malpractice.
He said the phenomenon had continued to pervade all sectors of the West Africa’s educational system.
Adamu, who was represented by Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, urged the council and education stakeholders to make serious efforts at stemming the menace.
WAEC Registrar Pateh Bah said the Council had delivered creditably on its mandate, thereby assisting in the development of sound education, ensuring the maintenance of educational standards and stimulating sustainable national development through capacity building and quality manpower production.