WAEC: Our Certificates Can no Longer be Falsified
Over the years, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has gone through a lot of experiences in conducting several examinations with all the arising challenges. In this interview with Peace Obi, the Head, Nigerian National Office, Mr. Charles Egurid
It has been said that WAEC under your supervision has introduced several innovative programmes. Could you expatiate please?
Well, innovation has always been part of our operations. So I wouldn’t say that innovation started with me, but under my watch, we have introduced quite a number of new ideas in doing business.
We have virtually automated most of our procedures and one of the latest is the introduction of customer service centres. Customer service center is to make WAEC more responsive to the needs and concerns of our numerous publics which we take as an issue that has actually given us a bad name.
Also, one of the recent introductions is the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology. In the conduct of an examination, this is a technology that grips the biometric features of the candidates we capture during registration and we are able to use it to detect examination malpractices real time from any center in the country.
RFID technology detects improperly registered cards. This is because we issue to the candidate what is called the candidate identity card that has all the subjects, index number and photograph well encrypted in the card. It is just like the PVC INEC used in the conduct of the elections and RFID is similar to a card reader that is able to certify the card holder in the verification of the candidate.
In others words, you were ahead of INEC as regards the use of card readers?
Of course yes, we were a step ahead of INEC but under a different name called RFID technology.
Can you say that INEC borrowed the idea?
I wouldn’t say that because the technology has always been there, it is just that we have not been bold enough to embrace it. We never consulted with INEC neither did INEC consult with us. I think we were working on the same line and we were able to get there. Or perhaps they got there ahead of us; they didn’t use it until recently.
We also have another innovation we have brought to bear in our operations, the quick response code on the certificates we issue to our candidates. Because of impersonation and frequent reports received on falsification of our certificates, people try to falsify our certificates. Now we have made it impossible for our certificates to be falsified with effect from the May/June 2015.
Actually, we started it last year to be precise. We were able to ensure that every candidate that registered for WAEC examinations, their biometric features were captured. You know no two human beings have the same finger prints.
Now these biometric features are now encrypted in what is called quick response codes that is printed on the certificates. On the quick response codes, we also have the actual grades encrypted. So, apart from the certificate you receive saying that Mr. XYZ wrote the examination at so-and-so centre and obtained the following result on the one you print out, we now have this information encrypted on this quick response codes. Now, with a scanner, once the individual places his/her hand on the scanner, the scanner interprets the hidden information on the quick response codes. Even when you photocopy our certificates, that hidden information containing the biometric features of candidate will still be there.
Do you mean the quick response code will remain active even on duplicate copies made from any photocopier?
Yes, any photocopy at all. And we are the only examination body in the continent of Africa that has been able to introduce this particular technology on certificates.
Another innovation is the introduction of the customised mathematical sets and calculators. You know a number of candidates have their results cancelled or withheld because of bringing in foreign materials into the examination hall, and we want to help these candidates to help themselves.
The temptation to cheat is so much among the youths. So, we brought transparent customised calculators that also have mathematical instruments so they are infused two in one. The candidates are issued this for use in the examination hall. It is so transparent that you can’t even put anything in it and bring it to the examination hall.
We have also introduced what is called ‘Walk in Candidates’. I am informed that a number of people have misconception as to why WAEC introduced walk-in-candidates. In the past, when you write May/June and you are unable to register for November/ December and if it turns out that you didn’t do well, you have to wait for one year to register again. And we said this is time consuming and wasting the precious time of our candidates. So, we brought this to bear on our operations even though it is a huge sacrifice to our staff in operations.
By the walk-in-candidates feature, you can walk into the examination centre nearest to our branch office, register there the same day and write the examination the same day. And you will get your result along with those who registered during normal entry period.
Is the walk-in-candidate programme operational now?
Yes, it was implemented in last year’s November/December exams. The platform is open for November/December private candidates’ examination only. It is not available for the May/June candidates because the May/June candidates are school candidates. They are supposed to have gone through a period of tutelage in school and we also require that the school provide us with their continuous assessment marks to enable us assess them along with the marks from the script; because the school assessment contributes 30 per cent, while the final terminal examination contributes 70 per cent. This innovation saves time and stress for candidates who need to better their grades in specific subjects.
Can brilliant students in SS2 take advantage of this platform as a way of trying their hands on WAEC examinations?
The National Policy on Education does not really encourage candidates in SS1 or SS2 to go and write their exams as private candidates. In fact, those of them who are in schools, most of the schools frown at this development, if they are allowed. Because knowing children for what they are, when they are allowed to take this examination and pass them when they are in SS2, they can become unruly so the school authorities don’t allow it.
What steps has WAEC taken to make the public know about the availability of Walk-in-Candidate programme?
Well, this programme was just introduced last year November. We have sensitised the public, we have made radio and television announcements. We have also put advertorials in mass media to say that these things are available. It is a continuous process; we will continue to make sure that people get to know what we are doing. And that is why we have a vibrant public relations department. I have put in documentaries on the various television networks. We are coming out with another platform on air in the next few weeks, all on WAEC letting the people know what we are doing and what they should do to access our services.
Given the experience with the JAMB Computer-based Test, it seems CBT has come to replace the paper and pencil method, what is WAEC doing towards administering a full blown CBT in its examinations?
Before I tell you what WAEC is doing and what it tends to do, I must let you know the nature of JAMB test. JAMB is selection test meant for screening candidates who are seeking admission into tertiary institutions. WAEC examination is a high stake examination, it is a certification test and the JAMB test is multiple choices only. Ours looks at the various domains of learning, that means we look at the cognitive, we look at the affective and psychomotor aspects. Because our test is not just to say this fellow can score 50 over 100 in Mathematics and therefore he is a mathematician.
Our test involves theory, it involves oral, it involves practical. Let me just take a subject like biology for example; we have the biology theory, the practical and the objective. Even though studies have indicated that it is possible to get students to write essay questions online, Nigerians are not ready.
How many Nigerian children have access to simple computers? We test well over two million candidates annually and some schools located in rural communities, urban communities, and in some of these places they don’t have electricity. If you say you want to use the computer base test to carry out your examination for the May/June, you may end up not making the examination available to many of our rural dwellers because there are some places in Bayelsa you have to go by speed boats. They don’t have light, so how do you get the students in such communities to do computer-based test?
And if you ask Nigerians to bring their children from all the rural communities to the urban centers, they will be up in arms, so that is the first obstacle. The second obstacle is that for the test to be valid; how valid will the test be? A test that will measure proficiency in certain practical works being done on the laptop using key pads or mouse pads, will it really be valid?
Now that the federal government has through Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council introduced 40 trade subjects. These trade subjects like as auto body spray, refrigeration and air conditioning, how do you test such skills using a computer?
So, it is not as if we are not ready to go CBT, but when people talk about CBT, we should talk about CBT in relation to the objective of the examination. Ours is a high stake examination, we issue certificates to candidates and JAMB does not do that. The validity of our test should be such that the skills and competencies that are reflected in the grades we award to our candidates should be verifiable by the learning outcomes, by the arts, by the things those certified can do.
In general terms, where are you taking WAEC in the next five years?
Well, in the next five years, I don’t expect myself to be on this seat. But I know there is continuity in the life of every organisation. I think I see WAEC in the next five years and even now as the examination board of choice, we are the examination body of choice for the English people in West Africa, that is not to say that other examining boards are not of importance, but because we can sit here and boast that virtually every Nigerian who went to secondary school and he/she is of substance today must have taken our exams.
I can say that virtually every president in the country in the past 10 years or more wrote WAEC exams. Across the sub-region, I can say that virtually 95 per cent of those who occupy the civil service today wrote WAEC exams.
So, we can see ourselves as trailblazers, we can see ourselves as those who built the foundation for a modern Nigeria. And to that extent, I expect WAEC having contributed so much will continue to be relevant in the scheme of things. I see a WAEC that will be able to conduct exams and release results in less than 45 days. I see a WAEC that will boast of conducting exams leakage-free as we do today, continuously. I see a WAEC that will have more men and women succeeding us who will bring to bear modern innovation in ICT in its operations.