The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has announced it will conduct a computer-based WASSCE for private WASSCE candidates.

The announcement has sent shocks down the spines of many candidates who were looking forward to the usual pen and paper WASSCE.

According to WAEC, this decision is in line with global practices.

WAEC-Nigeria will be the first to carry out this computer-based WASSCE for private candidates, popularly known as NOVDEC in Ghana. The possibility of this being introduced in Ghana is very high.

In a press release by the Nigeria-WAEC, the institutions stated that they have successfully migrated the WASSCE for private candidates from paper to pen to an online examination.

One of the reasons for this is to reduce all forms of examination malpractice.

The set of candidates who will write online in November will be 2024 private WASSCE candidates. The last batch of students who will be administered physical examination questions is the 2023 batch.

The decision will further reduce the costs WAEC incurs in running the examination, such as printing costs, among others.

WAEC added that the objective test will be fully computerized; however, the theory aspect will be a combination of the old system and the computer-based examination. Thus, some papers will be handwritten while others will be written via the computer, as far as Section B is concerned.

“The innovation will commence with the WASSCE for Private Candidates, 2024—First Series, which is slated to hold in February 2024. While the objective test will be fully computer-based, the essay and test of practical papers will be hybrid, in which the examination questions will be delivered on screen and candidates are required to write the answers on answer booklets given to them.”

The examinations will be carried out in urban cities and centres, and candidates with special needs have been factored into the plan per the statement released by WAEC.

WAEC has put in place a comprehensive plan that includes candidates taking mock examinations in February ahead of the main examination to help candidates acquaint themselves with how the examinations will be carried out.

As Africa’s foremost examining body, providing qualitative and reliable educational assessment and encouraging academic excellence and moral excellence, it is the vision of the Council that, in the near future, all its examinations will be delivered via the computer.

WAEC has advised all candidates to work on their computing skills so that they will be ready for the examination.

WAEC added that it looks forward to making this new feature the norm for all its examinations.

The success of the computer based WASSCE in Nigeria will surely lead it is introduction in the other four member states of WAEC including Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Gambia.

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The computer based Private WASSCE for candidates will help curb examination malpractices and leakages that characterize WAEC examinations.

Established in 1952, the council has contributed to education in Anglophone countries of West Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Gambia), with the number of examinations they have coordinated, and certificates they have issued.