JAMB: How not to ‘move education forward’

The proposed computer-based test to replace the paper-and-pencil test in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for admission into public universities should be scrapped even before it becomes compulsory in 2015. Computer-based testing of students in an environment in which access to computers is highly limited is an unwise, inequitable, prejudiced, and discriminatory method of testing candidates seeking admission into Nigerian universities.
Computers are an efficient and effective way of doing things but we must also acknowledge that access to computers is highly limited in our society. How many university students have access to computers or have computer skills? The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) must not rush to implement this inept policy that will disadvantage so many students. The first test of fairness that should be considered is whether the use of computers in the university admission tests will provide a level playing field to all the candidates. If the answer to the question is in the negative, such a proposal must be scrapped immediately.
Computer-based testing for admission into universities will not meet the requirement for fairness. The test will not be fair to all students because of the obvious disparities that exist between students in urban centres who are exposed to better facilities and students in rural locations who have limited access to computers. Not only does this inequity exist in terms of access to computers, it exists also in terms of requisite computer skills. With such a comparative background of disadvantage, how does JAMB expect students from rural areas to match the computer knowledge and skills of students in city centres in an examination that is deemed to be fair and equitable?
By proposing to introduce computer-based testing for admission into Nigerian universities, JAMB has failed to acknowledge that a computer knowledge gap exists between students in urban centres and those in rural areas in regard to their level of access to computers and other technologies that facilitate teaching and learning. Youth in rural and remote locations in Nigeria experience more social and economic disadvantages than their counterparts in city centres. These students also suffer from low self-esteem more than students in urban centres.
Beyond questions of computer access and skills, there is also the more problematic question of how JAMB plans to provide uninterrupted electricity that will power the computers throughout the duration of the examination. We have a notorious record of frequent disruptions in electricity supply. How will computer-based tests be conducted hitch-free across the country when there is no guarantee of steady electricity supply in all the examination venues?
Is JAMB fully equipped to handle the problems that are likely to arise when electricity supply is cut off in one or more centres? How would students in the affected centres be compensated? These are logistical and management problems that JAMB has not thought through yet. Another problem is the capacity of JAMB to provide computers to thousands of students who will sit the examination.
Given the paucity of computers in secondary and tertiary education institutions in Nigeria, how realistic is it for JAMB to provide computers to approximately 616,574 candidates who have opted to sit the computer-based tests in May 2014, before the compulsory policy of computer-based testing kicks off in 2015. You can imagine the planning, management and technical nightmares that will confront JAMB in 2015 when more than one million candidates will be compelled to sit the examination, whether they like it or not.
JAMB must reconsider its thoughtless decision swiftly. You cannot hasten to adopt new technology simply because of the benefits the technology promises to offer. JAMB perceives computer technology as the basic tool to end examination malpractices of all kinds in the 21st century and beyond. How true is that? It is incontestable that computers have helped humanity to do things better, faster, more efficiently, more inventively, and in record time. These constitute the merits of new technology. But there is no evidence that computer-based testing will eliminate examination malpractices.
What JAMB has refused to consider is the extent of the availability of computers to students, in particular students from low socioeconomic background who suffer deprivations and lack of access to new technologies. It is not the fault of the students that they are based in rural locations or that the schools they attend are ill-equipped with appropriate technologies to help them to meet the challenges of the 21^st century. JAMB has decided to take no notice of the circumstances of these students.
The introduction of computer technology as a replacement for the paper-and-pencil UTME test must be preceded by research to  inform how the new technology can transform secondary school students in an environment in which they are starved of access to computers. In the first instance, JAMB ought to consider whether computer-based tests will influence the performance of students from different social backgrounds.
How many secondary schools teach students basic courses in computer appreciation and use? Nigeria has all the resources to make computers available to students in primary and secondary schools. Unfortunately, that has not happened because of so many reasons such as lack of willingness on the part of government and the private sector to provide computers to schools, lack of training opportunities for teachers who will teach students basic computer knowledge, underfunding of schools, embezzlement of limited funds provided to schools, theft of school equipment, lack of basic infrastructure that will support the use of computers in schools such as uninterrupted electricity supply, subscription to Internet service providers, and so on.
Provision of computers to students should not be regarded as a favour or luxury. It is a right. Denying the students access to computers in their quest for knowledge is like depriving them their basic human right.
In the digital age driven by computer technology, Federal and state governments have an obligation to equip schools with the basic tools for the advancement of teaching and learning. Governments at federal and state levels must ensure that students in public schools have access to computers. Above all, students in secondary schools, including primary school students must be taught how to use computers to advance their education, to do assignments, to improve reading, writing and arithmetic skills, and to communicate with their colleagues.
While the rest of the world is exploiting new technologies for improvements in their socioeconomic conditions, we have opted to do things in the old manual way. During a research visit to one of the Nigerian universities in the late 1990s, I was stunned when I was informed by a senior university academic in a mass communication department that students in the department were taught email and Internet technology through drawing illustrations on the blackboard. I felt that was an extraordinary scandal. You can see that it is not only primary and secondary school students that suffer from lack of access to computers and the Internet. The problem is also amplified in universities.
Outside the universities, there are many people who graduated from computer training institutes and colleges but who lack access to computers.  However, a majority of the graduates have no personal computers. They also lack access to computers, other than the restricted access at Internet cafés. The Federal Government’s science and technology policy should aim to popularise computer access and use among students of all age groups, regardless of their socioeconomic background. The objective should be to reduce the digital divide between the technology “haves” and the technology “have-nots”.
More than three decades ago, Julius Nyerere, former president of Tanzania, painted a depressing picture of the African scene when he said that while the industrialised world was travelling to the moon with ease — as a result of their technological progress — African leaders were still grappling with the problem of how to reach their people in the villages.
What makes the Nigerian situation pitiable is that we have the financial, human and technical resources to harness new technologies but the political leaders have never regarded uptake of new technologies as a priority. This was why our science and technology policy was not rolled out until years after other countries had implemented their policies.
JAMB is jumping into uncharted waters by introducing computer-based testing of students seeking admission into universities. This innovative idea, praiseworthy as it might appear on paper, will be hard to implement in practice.
JAMB Registrar Dibu Ojerinde has argued that the introduction of computer-based testing was meant to “move forward education” in Nigeria. That argument can be rebutted on several grounds. You cannot move education forward midcourse. That movement ought to have started right from the primary school level through the introduction of courses in computer appreciation and skills.
The government and private sector have to encourage computer appreciation at the primary school level that will ensure that computers are provided to school children. School children should be taught the essentials of computer use. We must make sure that future generations of Nigerians grow up to appreciate and use computers to improve their lives. From this modest beginning, the introduction of computer-based testing at the university admission level will be easier to implement.
The JAMB registrar argued the computer-based tests will eliminate examination malpractices. There is no evidence to suggest that use of computers has helped to eliminate examination malpractices anywhere in the world. It could reduce the incidence but examination malpractices will exist in different forms. Students who are criminally-oriented will always devise new ways to cheat, regardless of computer technology.