Esther Taiwo
About 127 registered candidates seeking admission into the Lagos State Model Colleges/Upgraded Secondary Schools will be writing the entrance examination via Computer Based Test, known as CBT.
Addressing newsmen after an inspection tour of the Basic Examination Certificate Examination, BECE / Computer Based Test Examination centres, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mrs. Olatokunboh Adeleye, said entrance examination into Model Colleges has two papers, which are
English, including General questions and Mathematics taken for two hours each, adding that the examination is in two versions: Computer Based Test (CBT) which will be taken by 127 registered students and Paper Pencil Test (PPT) which sits about 10,873 at the 43 designated centres across the state.
The Permanent Secretary expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the exercise and assured that results would be released in good time to enable successful candidates resume into their respective schools and classes at the beginning of the new academic session in September, 2019.
She said requirements for admission into Model Colleges and Upgraded Schools will be strictly based on candidates’ performance and vacancies in schools.
Adeleye, who led a monitoring team to assess the conduct of the Examination which took place simultaneously in all the six Education Districts of the state, urged parents/guardians to prepare their wards effectively for the examinations as well as ensure punctuality at their various venues.
It would be recalled that 185,000 students across Lagos State are sitting for this year’s Basic Examination Certificate Examination (BECE) for JS3 Students and Entrance Examinations into State Model Colleges and Upgraded Schools for the 2019/2020 Academic session which will run from Monday, 15th – Saturday, 27th July, 2019.
In the words of the Permanent Secretary, “JS3 students writing the BECE Examinations will be tested in nine compulsory subjects and one optional subject (Arabic).
The subjects include English Studies, Mathematics, Basic Science and Technology, Religion and National Value, French Language, Business Studies, Cultural and Creative Arts, National Languages (Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa) and Pre Vocational Studies”
Recall that the Lagos State Ministry of Education shifted the dates for the examinations in a bid to replace the manual registration with e-Registration of candidates so as to ensure a hitch-free and transparent process, devoid of malpractices.
Meanwhile, the Director and Registrar of Lagos State Examination Board, Dr. Oluwafemi Hassan, said that Lagos State is moving towards being at par with other nations in line with Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
Addressing a group of journalists at the opening ceremony of the 2019 CBT Version for admission of candidates held at the Lagos State Examinations Board’s Conference Room Iyana Ipaja, Hassan said that the introduction of CBT at the elementary stage will also reduce examination malpractice to the barest minimum.
“Examination malpractice is completely impossible because aside from the candidates being watched, the questions have been set randomly so also the answers to ensure that even when two candidates sit together they cannot copy from each other”, he said.
He said the importance of the CBT screening is to announce to the world that Lagos State is ready to take the Bull by the Horn because the world is now in computer age as everything is done with the aid of computer.
“Things have changed drastically, everywhere in the world now talks of Information Communication Technology, ICT so we don’t want to be left behind.
What we want to do is to make pupils in Lagos public schools see and be able to do examinations in an advanced way, using the computer which is referred to as , Computer Based Test, CBT”, he said.
Explaining further, Hassan said: “We want to create awareness, we want to make it known in Nigeria that the CBT exam is a good thing that’s why we have set the CBT process up in other centers, soon the candidates can do their examinations in other centers instead of coming all the way to the Board”.
He said the Board has also made it possible for disabled candidates as well to be able to write the Computer Based Test examination.
“Like the crippled and other pupils living with one disability or the other, even deaf and dumb as well. Certain set of skilled people will give them the instructions on how to do the exams and it will be perfect”, he said.
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