NECO Records Hitch-Free CBT Examination, Targets September Result Release

The Federal Government has described the debut of the National Examinations Council (NECO) Computer-Based Test (CBT) for the Senior School Certificate Examination as a significant step towards eliminating examination malpractice, with officials reporting a seamless exercise across centres in the Federal Capital Territory.

Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, expressed satisfaction after monitoring the ongoing examination at Redeemers Teap School and Anglican Girls’ Grammar School in Abuja, noting that feedback from candidates indicated a strong preference for the digital format over the conventional paper-based system.

“I spoke with a lot of the students and most of them said they prefer the CBT examination,” Ahmad said. “They also confirmed that they had not seen the examination questions before the test and that each candidate answered a different set of questions randomly”.

The minister emphasised that the randomisation of questions had made it impossible for candidates to copy from one another, describing the CBT platform as one of the most effective tools for tackling examination malpractice.

“The CBT makes communication between candidates impossible and is one of the best ways of tackling examination malpractice,” she stated.

Ahmad, however, assured that the nationwide transition to CBT would only commence after the necessary infrastructure had been put in place to avoid disadvantaging any student.

“We will not begin the full transition until we have everything in place because we do not want to put any student at a disadvantage,” she said. “We are working with the National Assembly, state governors, private partners and other stakeholders to provide the facilities required for a seamless nationwide transition”.

NECO Registrar, Prof. Ibrahim Dantani Wushishi, disclosed that the council had recorded no technical challenges since the commencement of the examination.

“They assured me that since the commencement of this year’s examination, they did not experience any technical glitch. The exams were ready, they started on time, no hiccups, no network problems,” he said.

Wushishi revealed that 1,378,048 candidates registered for this year’s Senior School Certificate Examination, with female candidates slightly outnumbering their male counterparts—a development he attributed to the growing impact of government policies promoting girl-child education.

The registrar also said the council had established about 10 CBT centres in the Federal Capital Territory and expressed optimism that the examination results would be released in the first week of September to support the 2026 admission process. He maintained that the CBT platform’s question randomisation feature had significantly reduced opportunities for examination malpractice.

Some candidates who spoke after the examination described the process as seamless and more convenient than the paper-based system. A candidate at Redeemers Teap School, Ambassador Alabi, described the exercise as seamless, while Isaac Abioro, a candidate at Anglican Girls’ Grammar School, said the examination was easy to navigate and free of technical problems.

The Principal of Anglican Girls’ Grammar School, Mrs. Nkiruka Nwafor, said the transition to CBT was preparing students for a technology-driven future, explaining that the school had already introduced computer-based testing for some internal examinations to familiarise students with the system before participating in external examinations.

The Federal Government had previously directed NECO and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to adopt full CBT for all their examinations by 2026, a policy aimed at curbing malpractice and speeding up result processing. The directive followed the successful conduct of CBT examinations by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for over 2.2 million candidates.