THE Registrar of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) Dr Iyi Uwadiae, has declined further comments on President Muhammadu Buhari’s Secondary School certificate, saying the position of the Council had been presented by its official before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja.
Deputy Registrar, Schools Examination in Nigeria, WAEC, Osidehinde Adewunmi on last week Wednesday, told the tribunal that the WAEC Registrar, Dr Iyi Uwadiae, issued the WAEC attestation certificate to President Buhari on November 2, 2019.
But while fielding questions from newsmen at the 37th Annual Conference of the Association for Educational Assessment in Africa (AEAA), on Monday in Abuja, the WAEC Register said he was not going to comment further on that.
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are seeking nullification of the victory of President Buhari on the grounds that he lacked the requisite educational qualification to contest the last Presidential election.
When prodded on the issue, Uwadiae said: “I am aware that WAEC was asked to come to tribunal to give evidence and somebody went there to represent WAEC.
“So, what whatever WAEC has, that has been delivered,” he said.
He noted that the focus should be on the conference, which according to him, was a gathering of experts to brainstorm on how to improve on innovations in educational assessment in the continent.
Uwadiae insisted that in order to help Africa achieve overall development in education, it was imperative for examining bodies and all stakeholders to be innovative in educational assessment.
He said speakers at the conference would dwell on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and innovations in educational assessment, innovative assessment for quality education among others.
He disclosed plans by the WAEC to introduce Computer Based Test (CBT) saying the Council is working very hard to ensure its actualization.
He said: “Right now, we have about three, four centres fully equipped for Computer-Based Testing but one thing we must know is that our examination is an achievement testing and not a selection test.
“We have essay, practical, and objective. What we are trying to do first and foremost is to ensure that the objective component of our exams could be exposed to CBT.
“While we are doing that we have to also look at the readiness of the various schools. Because if you just go into it and some schools are not ready, then there will be a problem.
“We are working towards that sensitizing the various governments in Nigeria and other member countries so that they will not say, WAEC, you jumped at us. As we are working, we are also asking them to go along with us.
“We are in charge of five-member countries and they all have to be prepared, the schools have to be prepared and students must be prepared. Even in the Netherland, where they started the CBT, as we speak, they are not 100 per cent CBT.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Arc. Sonny Echono, who declared the five days conference open, expressed the commitment of the Federal Government towards ensuring that education system in Nigeria prepares and equip the citizenry to be globally competitive.
“To demonstrate its commitment to the development of education in the country, about N1.3 trillion has been expended on the sector in the last four years by the present administration to provide critical education infrastructure,” he said.