The National Examinations Council (NECO) is not ready to introduce Computer Based Tests (CBT) in its examinations because the computer mode is not yet perfect for marking essay questions.
.
Professor Promise Okpala, Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of NECO who made this disclosure said that the computer based test needs to be tested at the highest level before bringing it to the candidates as the stakes are high to be experimenting with external examinations.
.
"You must perfect it before you bring it to the consumers, because there are so much knowledge that is not at the consumption level.
.
It is like trying to prepare a drug; you don't just rush it to test it with human beings. So, the major concern we have is what do we do to reduce the human beings who are marking essays because it would be more economical and faster", he said.
.
He further argued that the technology being used in marking essays was not particularly perfect yet, adding that it was still at the level of experimentation because it was more difficult to do, saying, "you can appreciate when someone tells you to write an essay or something like education of girls and women or write an essay whether Nigeria should go nuclear."
.
He thereby advocated the need for the Nigerian Child to be taught ICT right from Primary School, unlike what it obtains presently whereby Nigerian children were being taught about Computer education from class one in the Junior Secondary School till such children reached the final year in secondary school so that when the CBT is finally introduced, nobody will have course to be afraid of the exam mode.