Outgoing Head of National Office (HNO) for the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Nigeria, Dr Amos Dangut, has revealed that public resistance to digital transformation is his biggest regret in office.

Dangut, who joined WAEC as an Assistant Registrar II in 1998, rose through the ranks to assume the top position on October 2, 2023, succeeding Mr. Patrick Areghan.

He spoke during a question-and-answer session with the media in Lagos, where he announced the release of the 2026 May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results. The announcement marked his final major assignment as the WAEC Nigeria HNO.

According to the freshly released statistics, a total of 1,950,726 candidates sat the examination. Out of this number, 1,200,514 candidates (representing 61.54 percent), obtained credits and above in at least five mandatory subjects, including English Language and Mathematics. The performance represents a slight decline compared to last year’s pass rate of 62.96 percent.

Reflecting on his tenure, Dangut explained that the council’s efforts to migrate from the traditional pen-and-paper format to Computer-Based Testing (CBT) met severe institutional and public pushback.

“When WAEC introduced the CBT examinations and started the migration from the traditional pen-and-paper mode, there were suspicions that it would not work. People objected to it,” Dangut said.

He noted that the organisation embarked on massive media campaigns and stakeholder engagements to address these concerns, yet skepticism persists.

“Until today, we still have people saying no to the shift. It is a reluctance rooted in the fear of change. I regret that we are still clinging to our traditional methods of examination. Nothing is permanent in life; computer-based testing is the future,” he emphasised.

Addressing whether WAEC can seamlessly manage nearly two million candidates for the school-candidate exam within a six-to-eight-week window and release results within 45 days, Dangut noted that service delivery remains a continuous work in progress.

WAEC did not start by releasing results within 45 days after the last paper; it used to take much longer. We will continue to improve our service delivery, even though 45 days is not our rigid benchmark. With the innovations we are putting in place, the era of traditional pen-and-paper examinations is gradually coming to an end,” he said.

He clarified that while the CBT policy is a Federal Government directive, WAEC’s role is to ensure its flawless implementation.

“CBT exams have far more advantages than disadvantages. It is cost-effective in the long run and will drastically minimise malpractice. The digital mode eliminates hardcopy question papers, which removes the risk of questions being leaked during printing or compromised in transit,” Dangut explained.

He maintained, however, that the ultimate success of the CBT transition relies heavily on the collective responsibility of all stakeholders, including the government. (Nigerian Tribune)

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