Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, has disclosed that the Federal Government will go ahead with the transition to Computer-Based Testing, CBT, for the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, and the National Examinations Council, NECO.
The Minister, who made this statement during a guest appearance on 'The Morning Brief', a programme on Channels Television on Tuesday, reiterated that WAEC and NECO would begin migrating their examinations to CBT from November 2025.
He spoke in reaction to the release of statistics from the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, which revealed that over 1.5 million of the 1.95 million candidates scored below 200 out of 400.
Reacting to the poor UTME results and what they indicate about learning outcomes at the senior secondary school level, the minister described it as a big concern, stressing that it is a reflection of exams being done the proper way.
“JAMB conducts its exam using a computer-based testing system.
They’ve implemented strong security measures, and as a result, fraud or cheating has been nearly eliminated. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same for WAEC and NECO," he said.
Alausa disclosed that the government had conducted a comprehensive review of the country’s examination systems shortly after he assumed office.
“We carried out a diagnostic review of how exams are conducted nationwide. I set up a committee to investigate this, and I expect to receive their report in the coming days,” he added.
He reiterated that WAEC and NECO would begin migrating their examinations to CBT from November 2025, starting with objective papers, with full implementation—covering essay components—by May/June 2026.
“We have to use technology to fight this fraud. There are so many ‘miracle centres’ and that is simply unacceptable.
"People cheat during WAEC and NECO exams and then face JAMB, where cheating is nearly impossible. That’s the disparity we’re seeing now. It’s sad,” Alausa said.