By Niyi Fagbuaro
The proposed transition of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) from the traditional Paper and Pencil Testing format to Computer-Based Testing is, without question, a progressive and necessary step.
It reflects a desire to modernize Nigeria’s assessment system and position it within global educational trends.
Yet the key determinant of success remains the readiness of stakeholders, especially the secondary schools themselves. This factor, though central, is the most overlooked element in the entire digitalization conversation.
A major concern lies in the current centralized CBT model, which mirrors the long-standing challenges associated with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
WAEC, by design, is a school-based assessment meant to evaluate students within the environment in which they learned the curriculum. Shifting candidates to distant CBT centres disrupts this core philosophy.
When students are tested outside their natural academic setting, the examination drifts away from measuring true curriculum mastery and becomes an endurance test of unfamiliar spaces, unfamiliar machines, and the logistics of travel.
Nigeria’s experience with JAMB’s CBT centres has also exposed serious risks and inconveniences.
Year after year, thousands of young candidates are compelled to travel long distances, sometimes with overnight stays in insecure or unsuitable places, simply to sit for an exam.
Such exposure is unsafe for teenagers whose welfare should be the system’s priority.
Beyond physical risk, the emotional toll is equally troubling.
The stress of navigating a strange location, handling unfamiliar devices, or dealing with disrupted sleep patterns can distort performance. An examination should measure what a student knows, not how well a child can cope with confusion.
Students excel when they feel secure, calm, and mentally settled. The ideal digital assessment should allow them to walk from their classrooms into a school-based computer lab, remaining within the comfort zone that supports their cognitive best.
Centralized CBT centres also deepen Nigeria’s already troubling infrastructural inequality. Many rural schools lack computer laboratories, stable electricity, or internet connectivity. Rather than confronting this inequity, the centralized model simply circumvents it, asking students to chase technology instead of bringing technology to the students.
A fair and just digitalization process demands the opposite. Digital assessments should spark national investment in schools, not serve as a reminder of their neglect.
Nigeria’s digital transition should begin with a comprehensive infrastructural overhaul within the schools themselves.
Functional computer laboratories, reliable power supply strengthened by solar electrification in rural communities, and dependable internet access must become non-negotiable priorities. These are not luxuries; they are the foundation of any credible computer-based examination system. The country has the financial capacity to achieve this transformation. Enormous resources haemorrhage daily through corruption and inefficiency.
Redirecting even a fraction would revolutionize the educational landscape.
The needed funds exist, the political will to deploy them is what must be awakened.
To ensure fairness, competence, and national readiness, the implementation timeline must also be realistic. Lawmakers have already cautioned against any rushed rollout. A thoughtful, phased approach stretching toward 2026 or 2027 offers the time needed for infrastructural development, teacher and student training, and nationwide mock examinations that test both equipment readiness and human preparedness. Digitalization cannot be meaningful if it excludes, burdens, or endangers the very children it seeks to serve.
The future of WAEC is digital, but that future must be responsibly built.
Digitalizing the WASSCE should strengthen educational quality, reduce malpractice, and bring Nigeria in line with international standards. What it must not do is compromise student safety, introduce undue stress, or widen the inequality gap between privileged and underserved communities.
The wisest approach is unmistakable.
Equip the schools, empower the students, and allow digital transformation to grow from within the educational system itself.
Outsourcing the process to external centres ignores the essence of what WAEC represents and shortchanges the Nigerian child.
A digital examination system is only as strong as the school system that carries it, and that foundation must be rebuilt, not bypassed.
*Niyi Fagbuaro is a teacher in Ekiti State
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