PREPARING FOR THE 2026 COMPUTER-BASED SSCE.

The Federal Government has announced that the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) will be computer-based as from 2026 (https://tribuneonlineng.com/no-going-back-on-transition-of-neco-waec-others-to-cbt-fg/ ; https://fmino.gov.ng/fg-unveils-full-transition-to-cbt-for-waec-and-neco-by-2026-commends-necos-pilot-scheme/) . The multiple-choice sections will be done as in the UTME, so most candidates can learn what to expect from their older brothers and sisters. However, the other sections (practicals, essays, comprehension and summary) will also be computer-based. How can the candidates, parents, schools, examination bodies , governments, etc prepare for a hitch-free exam next year? 

1. Students (beginning from SSS 1, if not earlier) should start using their holidays to learn typing at the computer centres near them. While most students can type and send text messages, emails, social media posts and comments, etc from their phones (and can therefore easily type their essay, comprehension and summary answers in the English Language papers), they need to learn how to type fractions, superscripts, subscripts, integral signs, matrices, vectors, chemical equations, etc and how to draw complex diagrams before they can type their answers correctly in Maths and other science subjects. What about typing Yorùbá answers with the right tonal marks? They need to undergo training in using Microsoft Office, Corel Draw, etc and typing with 10 fingers instead of 2 (for greater speed). Most smartphone Office apps (such as WPS Office) do not allow typing fractions, matrices, vectors, etc (which are on the laptop and desktop Office apps) but only allow subscripts, superscripts and some diagrams (with the help of screenshots and photo editing). Hence, students should be trained in the desktop and laptop Office apps. After all, they will write their exams on desktop or laptop computers, not on smartphones. Smartphones can, however, help them access and view videos (from YouTube, Tiktok, etc) on using these apps. 

2. Parents should buy smartphones for their children and enrol them for computer training during the holidays, as discussed above. Smartphones will also give them access to the online versions of Advanced Learners' dictionaries (which are always fuller than the print versions, which must be portable). They can find zillions of synonyms and antonyms for any word through Google-search links to thesauruses (special dictionaries containing synonyms, antonyms and related words). This will help them solve crossword puzzles (also obtainable online), which will help enrich their vocabularies.  

3. Schools should start exposing their students to computer-based exams from SSS 1. Assignments can even be typed on phones and sent to teachers' email boxes. This will improve their proficiency in typing. 

4. Exam bodies should record videos of some sample students writing the exams on computers and post the videos online. This will help prepare the less-exposed students in rural schools. It will also confirm the feasibility of the computer-based exam system before the exams begin.      

5. (a) The government (in conjunction with the power holding companies) should ensure a regular uninterrupted electricity supply to all the examination centres throughout the exams. (b) After equipping the public schools with computers and stable electricity, the govt should also provide subsidized e-libraries and computer centres in town for other people (including private school students) to patronize.

6. With the computer-based exam systems, school teachers will no longer need to find specimens for Agric and Biology Practical exams. Hence, no teacher will have a foreknowledge of the specimens his students will identify and answer other questions on. Each candidate's computer will bring pictures or videos of his or her own unique set of specimens. Therefore, each candidate should Google all the unfamiliar organisms, etc in the Agric and Biology syllabuses ahead of the exam, screenshot their pictures and store the pictures into a Practicals folder for constant viewing. The specimens can come from the ocean floor, the desert , the top of a tree, or any unfamiliar habitat within the scope of the syllabus. 

7. The first set of candidates should be given an extra hour or 2 to get used to the new system. This will reduce the public outcry.

8. Marked printouts of each student's scripts (along with his or her unique set of questions) should be scanned into the exam body's online database for concerned parties to consult after the results are released. This feedback system will ensure transparency and accountability. With time, e-marking can be done without having to print out the candidates' e-scripts.

BENEFITS OF THE COMPUTER-BASED EXAMS

1. Typing will shield students from the effects of an illegible handwriting and also help markers with poor eyesight to mark essay-type answers well.

2. The computer will ring most wrongly-spelt words and suggest probable correct ones. This will reduce candidates' spelling errors (at least in Arts subjects). Students should, however, beware of suggested corrections to scientific names.   

3. Students will be able to cancel errors and make corrections without making their scripts unsightly. 

4. Every candidate will get as much writing space as he or she needs, without being constrained by the lack of enough extra sheets.   

Happy preparation to all the concerned stakeholders. 

Every teacher should have a typed-questions bank.

The summary passage of the June 1998 WASSCE English Language paper describes how public exam bodies set their questions months or even years in advance, vet the questions and then store them securely for future use.  

In this smartphone and Internet age, every teacher can easily keep a bank of his or her past and future typed questions. This is especially important for teachers of Mathematics and other Science subjects (whose questions need careful typing and proofreading because of the subscripts, superscripts, fractions, matrices, vectors, diagrams, etc). They should submit their handwritten questions to the typist early and get the typed Word document sent to their smartphones for careful proofreading before printing. Otherwise, they will have to go and make the corrections right in the examination halls. Even then, the question papers will be unsightly.

After proofreading the Word document and making all the necessary corrections, send the document to the printer. Keep the edited document on your phone & upload it as an email attachment for future reference. Each new term, paste in your new set of edited questions and upload the new document as an email attachment again. You are gradually building up your typed exam questions' bank. 

You can create a future questions' bank by: (a) using your phone to take pictures of typed questions on paper, extract the text in those pictures (with Google Photos, etc) into your phone's keyboard clipboard, and paste those questions into a Word document for proofreading ; (b) copying the text of questions found online into a Word document for proofreading. If your handwriting is legible enough, you can convert pictures of your handwritten questions into typed text. Pictures can be photographed (from books) or screenshot (from the Internet) and inserted into the Word document. You can also use your phone to draw complex diagrams with the help of an Office app and a photo-editing app .

You are now ready to churn out quality questions even at short notice. Your used and new questions are already in typed form and can be selected, copied and pasted into a new document, rearranged and numbered to your taste, etc within 30 minutes and sent for printing. You are ready to beat any deadline and can now concentrate on writing your lesson notes, delivering the lessons, marking your students' scripts, etc. WPS Spreadsheet (or other equivalent apps) will help you calculate the sums and arithmetic means of many students' scores fast during the result collation stage.  

Most typists make silly typing mistakes while rushing to type many questions within a week or two. Assist both them and yourself by submitting your questions early, proofreading your typed questions on your phone or computer (while they continue typing other people's questions on their computer) and keeping a typed question bank document regularly uploaded to your email box for safekeeping. 

 

The roles of parents, teachers and students in education.

A Yoruba proverb says, " One person gives birth, but everybody minds the child"(Ẹnìkan ní í bímọ ;gbogbo ayé ní í bá a wò ó). Note that the proverb does not say "everybody else". "Everybody" here includes the parents, teachers, relatives, neighbours, pastors, etc and even the child himself or herself. Teachers, parents and students all have their roles to play in the educational development of students. 

THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER.

🔯 Have a thorough knowledge of the subject and prepare for your lessons adequately. 

🔯 Go for your lessons without waiting to be reminded by the students. Set alarms on your phone for your lessons ,if need be. Even at the university level, each lecturer is already waiting at the door about 10 minutes to the end of the previous lecture. 

🔯 Write the notes yourself on the chalkboard. If you hand over your lesson note to a student to copy it on the chalkboard, when will he/she write his/her own notes? The student will also see your senior colleagues' correction of your lesson notes in red biro and start disrespecting you. 

🔯 Explain the subject matter, answer the students' questions, ask them questions, give them written exercises and mark the exercises yourself.

🔯 Set, mark and record test and exam questions accurately.

🔯 Recommend good textbooks for the students.

  

 THE ROLE OF THE PARENT. 

Another Yoruba proverb says, " The owner of a load carries the heavier part" (Ẹlẹ́rù ní í gbé e níbi tó ti wúwo). 

🔯 Do not have more children than you can adequately feed, clothe, shelter and educate. Even God did family planning back in Eden. Even with His limitless resources, He created only 2 people, who produced today's 8 billion people worldwide. 

🔯 Choose a school whose fees you can afford and pay your children's school fees on time. No teacher will toy with his or her salary by begging the proprietor to let your child stay in school. Your child cannot be academically sound if he spends more days outside the school than within. He can also fall into bad company while loitering the streets. 

🔯 Similarly, choose a nearby school for your child. Why should your child spend hours in transit and fall asleep on getting to school? Why should your child's transport fare be higher than his or her school fees?  There is always a vacancy for students in every school!

🔯 Buy good textbooks for your children.

🔯 Ensure that your child does his or her homework every day before doing anything else. No teacher can go round the homes of all his students to do this. Neither can he afford to waste 20 minutes out of a 45-minute period waiting for a child who is just reading yesterday's notes and studying the examples before doing yesterday's homework. He will have to leave your child behind after marking his mates' work to do the corrections and begin today's work. Don't come to school to complain over this. Do YOUR job.

🔯 You are your child's primary moral educator, though teachers and pastors may assist you here. The parent:child ratio is always more favourable than the teacher:student and pastor:member ratios. Besides, most children rebel against outsiders' discipline unless it is reinforced by their own parents. Teachers and pastors will come and go, your children will progress from one level of education to the next but you will always be their parent. They also bear YOUR surname. You are their first and only permanent educator. Give them HOME training. 

Do the above duties and watch your child perform excellently in any school he or she attends. The "best" school won't be of help if you fail to do your duties. Even "Heaven helps only those who help themselves".

 THE ROLE OF THE STUDENT.

Yet another Yorùbá proverb says, "Only a child with outstretched arms can be lifted up by even his mother" (ọmọ tó bá ṣí'pá nìyá ẹ̀ ń gbé). 

After your parents and teachers have done their duties, you have to help yourself before Heaven can help you. Nobody can read your books for you or legitimately write your examinations for you. 

🔯 Come to school on time and don't absent yourself from classes. You can use your phone's alarm to wake up and leave home at the right time.

🔯 Do your homework first on getting home, before doing anything else.

🔯 Remind your parents to pay your school fees, especially when they are planning to buy expensive cloths, organise big parties,etc.

🔯 As an above-average student, you are likely to finish writing your notes and doing your classwork earlier than the others. Use the waiting period to study your textbooks and do the homework you have been given earlier in other subjects, instead of disrupting the class out of boredom. The teacher has to carry everybody along. Get a copy of the syllabus and read up every topic from the recommended textbooks. Again, the teacher may not be able to cover all the topics , due to trying to carry every student along.

🔯 If you are below average, make friends with your brighter colleagues and learn from them. Also, spend extra time at home reading your books (including those of lower classes) to regain lost grounds, especially at weekends and during holidays. Don't expect your teachers to FULLY teach you a lower grade's work. 

🔯 Never depend on examination malpractice. You may be disappointed at the last minute by your "helpers" due to strict supervision. Even if you successfully cheat your way through school, who will help you do your job (especially as a teacher)? Will you be able to give your children extra lessons or have to hire exam "helpers" for them later in life? Exam "helpers" are actually helping you to cheat yourself.

💎 By the way, a mercenary (or soldier of fortune) is "a soldier who will fight for any country or group that offers payment", not a person who helps a student to cheat in an exam.

Free online dictionary and thesaurus

A dictionary is a book that gives the definition of a word, while a
thesaurus gives a word's synonyms, antonyms and related words.
To get a word's synonym, definition, etc without spending a kobo, visit
www.freebasics.com with your Airtel SIM. Search for Dictionary and
Thesaurus, and add them to your free services. Bookmark them on your
browser for easy future reference. Click those links and type the word
you want into the Search space.

Free Basics' Thesaurus helps you find the right synonyms for each word
in a Crossword Puzzle, which is a good way to broaden your vocabulary.

If you start finding words this way months or years before your SSCE,
you will be able to "find another word or phrase that means the same
as each of the following words and can replace it as it is used in the
passage " without any stress at all.