The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has reaffirmed its commitment to fully transition the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to a computer-based test (CBT) format by 2026.
The council said the move will mark a major shift in the assessment system and push schools to embrace digital readiness.
Amos Dangut, Head of WAEC’s National Office, disclosed this on Tuesday during a sensitisation meeting with members of the National Assembly Committee on Education in Abuja.
He explained that the transition, which began with private candidates in 2024, has already recorded “significant progress” and will be scaled up nationwide ahead of the 2026 deadline.
“We have conducted five exams already — one for private candidates and one for school candidates — and by 2026, deployment will be massive,” Dangut said.
He assured stakeholders that infrastructure challenges and cyber risks would not derail the initiative, noting that WAEC had already conducted exams successfully in hard-to-reach areas without disruptions.
Read Also: Ogah decries withheld WAEC results, says 80% of youths losing admission
Dangut further stated that candidates’ performance in CBT has been “empirically better” than in paper-based tests.
WAEC first introduced the CBT format in 2024 for private candidates, signalling the beginning of the end of the traditional paper-and-pencil model. The council now intends to expand the rollout to include all school-based candidates.
The federal government, on July 22, 2025, also confirmed that privately owned CBT centres as well as those in public institutions will be fully deployed for WASSCE by 2026.
Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, explained that the WAEC and NECO exams, traditionally conducted in schools, would adopt the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) model.
“It is going to be like JAMB examinations, which are conducted at CBT centres. We have thousands of CBT centres across the nation. Those are the centres that we are going to use. It’s not the case that students do not have the facilities — it’s the schools that do not,” Alausa stressed.
