The Federal Government has commended the conduct of the National Examinations Council (NECO) Computer-Based Test (CBT) Senior School Certificate Examination, saying the new format is helping to curb examination malpractice.
Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, assessed on Wednesday after monitoring the ongoing examination at Redeemers Teap School and Anglican Girls’ Grammar School in Abuja.
She said feedback from candidates at both centres showed that many preferred the CBT format to the traditional paper-based examination. According to her, the candidates also reported that the examinations started on schedule and were completed without technical glitches.
“I spoke with a lot of the students, and most of them said they prefer the CBT examination. They also confirmed that they had not seen the examination questions before the test and that each candidate answered a different set of questions randomly.
“The CBT makes communication between candidates impossible and is one of the best ways of tackling examination malpractice,” Ahmad said.
She said the successful deployment of CBT marked significant progress for the education sector but added that the Federal Government would only proceed with a full transition after putting the necessary infrastructure in place nationwide.
“We will not begin the full transition until we have everything in place because we do not want to put any student at a disadvantage. We are working with the National Assembly, state governors, private partners and other stakeholders to provide the facilities required for a seamless nationwide transition,” she said.
Ahmad added that wider adoption of CBT would improve the quality of education by promoting merit and integrity in public examinations.
NECO Registrar, Prof. Ibrahim Wushishi, also said the council had recorded no technical hitches since the examination began.
“They assured me that since the commencement of this year’s examination, they did not experience any technical glitch. The exams were ready, they started on time, no hiccups, no network problems, nothing like that,” Wushishi said.
He disclosed that 1,378,048 candidates registered for this year’s Senior School Certificate Examination, with female candidates slightly outnumbering their male counterparts. He attributed the trend to government policies promoting girl-child education.
Wushishi said NECO currently operates about 10 CBT centres in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and expressed confidence that the examination results would be released in the first week of September to support the 2026 admission process.
He added that the CBT system, through question randomisation, had significantly reduced opportunities for examination malpractice while improving the credibility of the examination process.
The Principal of Anglican Girls’ Grammar School, Mrs. Nkiruka Nwafor, welcomed the transition, saying it is preparing students for a technology-driven future.
“The CBT experience is what we’ve all been waiting for. The future our girls are going into is dynamic and heavily ICT-driven. We are excited that our proprietor got on board.
We have also introduced CBT for some of our internal examinations so that from JS1 and JS2, the students gradually get used to the system. So it’s about time, and it’s good that it’s happening,” Nwafor said.
