MoE to introduce E-testing for BECE & WASSCE due to malpractice

After the serialization of examination questions did not end examination malpractice, the Ministry of Education says it’s considering e-testing for BECE and WASSCE to be conducted by the West African Examinations Council in the future.

The Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum who disclosed this said he is convinced that the e-testing would eventually lead to a computer selecting a set of questions for every prospective candidate to help prevent examination malpractices in the country.

Dr Adutwum pledged the Ministry’s preparedness to continue collaborating with the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and other stakeholders towards winning the fight against examination malpractice in the country.

Before the E-testing for BECE and WASSCE, the Education Minister says his outfit in collaboration with WAEC in 2025 will introduce the serialisation of the examination questions within the examination hall and not just at the centre.

“The Ministry will in 2025 look at how to do serialisation within the classroom so that student A, who is seated here, will have different questions from student B, who is seated in the same classroom, ” Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum told the media.

Speaking to journalists, the Minister of Education said his directive to the West African Examination Council (WAEC) in the past three years to adopt questions serialisation, with which they complied, had reduced examination leakages.

“If you want to say that you have the questions and you have gotten them leaked to you, you don’t know which examination centre has that question, so parents are not buying, students are not interested, and they are focusing on studying,” he said.

In a related development, WAEC management says it will introduce Computer Based Tests (CBT) along with the Paper Based Tests for this year’s November/December (Nov/Dec) examination also known as WASSCE for Private.

This means private candidates to sit for the 2024 edition of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in November will have the opportunity to choose between CB-WASSCE and a paper-based test.

Head of National Office, WAEC, Nigeria, Dr Amos Dangut, speaking at a WASSCE centre said his outfit in early 2024 successfully conducted the first edition of the computer-based (WASSCE), also known as CB-WASSCE.

“The examination, held in January and February, yielded better performance compared to the previous year, with a significant decrease in malpractices from five per cent to 0.8 per cent

We are now gearing up for the upcoming private candidates’ examination in October and November, offering candidates the choice between the traditional pen and paper and the computer-based method,” Dangut said.

As an initiative to expand computer-based examination, he said “It’s part of our plans to eventually implement computer-based examinations for all schools, in collaboration with the Federal Government and other stakeholders.

“We are also working on providing necessary facilities and training for schools to facilitate this transition. In any case, the world is already moving technologically. We also, as part of the global community, must ensure that we move along,” he noted.

The WAEC official expressed hope that the transition to the computer-based method will reduce the examination malpractice rate significantly, however, it is unclear if Ghanaian candidates will have the option to select the CBT.