The Head of Nigeria National Office (HNO), West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Mr. Kum Danlami Suleiman, who was appointed early this month spoke to our Correspondent on some issues.
Kum responded to some questions after monitoring the ongoing Computer-Based Test West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for private candidates, 2026 Second Series in Lagos.
He specifically admonished WASSCE candidates that there is nothing impossible to achieve if they focus on preparing for examinations and that the council will maintain the benchmark of integrity.
The HNO also spoke on private candidates’ exam, walk-in candidates, why candidates were searched, CBT has come to stay, the kind of council he inherited, exam integrity and charge to students.
What kind of WAEC did you inherit from your predecessor?
Well, WAEC is still WAEC. There is nothing different. And we are still building on what our forefathers started in the council. We’ve had over 75 years in existence, and WAEC is still moving on. So many changes have come. When we joined, we were doing manual registrations. That was around 1998. But in 2000, we started the online registration. And now, in 2024, we have started the conduct of the CBT WASSCE. And we are seeing the results. We are seeing the results. It’s drastically reducing exam malpractice.
So that is why I feel it is the best way to go. And I believe that WAEC will continue to improve to make sure that the conduct of examinations is better. And then we want to ensure that WAEC remains the benchmark of examination integrity and innovations in Nigeria. So when we are talking about exam integrity, we want WAEC to be the number one.
Your charge to students, especially those that will write similar exams?
My charge to them is to study. There is nothing that is impossible.Once you read, you are good to go. It is the same teachers that teach you that set these questions. It is the same teachers that will mark these questions. So once you study, there is no way you will not pass. Make sure you devote more time. And they are more of an advantage than we. During our days, you cannot go to the internet.You only have the library. And sometimes when you go to the library, somebody has already taken the textbook that you are looking for. But now you can go on the internet, you can do more research, you can study more. So they are at a better advantage than our own time. So I would just encourage them to study hard. We have our past questions and answers in all the subjects with the marking schemes that they can use to improve themselves. And we have the Chief Examiner’s Reports too, which is a very important document that we expect the students to also read. They will see their weaknesses per the subjects and their strength.They will see how they are supposed to answer these questions. And it will greatly help them in their performances in their exams.
Why are you here (CBT centre)?
Well, we are here (centre) on inspection of the conduct of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination for Private Candidates, 2026 Second Series. They are actually writing the English Language examination, and that is why we’ve come to see how the exams are going.
How many are writing the exam nationwide?
Nationwide, we have over 56,000 candidates writing these exams. And out of these numbers, we have about 272 candidates that registered as walk-in candidates’.
Explain what walk-in candidate is about?
When the registration closes, we still give opportunity for candidates that want to remedy one paper or the other. So, once they register a few days to the exam for a specific paper, before that paper, for example, if the candidate wants English Language, before the paper is taken, he can come in and register, and then we’ll allow him or her to write the exam on the day of English Language so that he can be able to get the paper that he wants.
Do you have the total number of candidates in Lagos?
In Lagos, we have over 22,000 candidates writing the WASSCE Second Series. And among the 22,000, for the walk-in candidate, we have about 50. So we have over 22,000 candidates writing their exams in Lagos State.
You monitored the examination in this centre, what are your findings?
I think everything is okay. You know, we have started this CBT WASSCE since 2024 with the first series, and we have always improved in the conduct of these examinations. We’ve discovered that this CBT WASSCE is truly the best way to go in conducting the exams. I’m sure you must have observed that before the candidates were checked in, they were searched, and then some of them, we discovered some things that they were not supposed to take into the hall.We now had to keep them away from them. The aim is to prevent exam malpractice. We don’t set traps. No, we want to prevent it.So by searching them before they go into the hall, we believe that there are candidates that may have been sitting and reading. And at the end of reading, maybe the paper they were using, they leave it in their pockets, or they leave it in their calculators.
They forget and enter with it. So that’s why we insist that the male candidates are searched by male WAEC staff, the females are searched by female invigilators. And even in the course of searching today, we caught somebody that had something in his socks, and we had to remove it and then allow him to go in to write the exam.
We believe when he goes in and he doesn’t have anything to look at, it will make him sit down and try to remember what it is that he has read, so that he’ll be able to pass his exams.
And the exams are going well. I’m even surprised to observe that the candidates, most of these candidates are Gen Zs.They know how to use the computer more than us. Because I was surprised to discover that some of them even know that they can zoom in on the questions so that it will be bigger. You know, that’s something I may not be able to do, but you can see these young students doing it. So, I think it’s a very good thing, and I think we’re moving on.
Are you saying CBT has come to stay?
CBT has come to stay. Because we have discovered that with CBT, the conduct of the exams is seamless. Even exam malpractice is drastically reduced with CBT exams. You can see how it is now. All these candidates inside, we have over 500 candidates writing the exam at this CBT centre. And we have 250, depending on the capacity of the CBT centres across the country. And I will assure you that CBT centre is truly the way to go.
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