The Head of the National Council, West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Mr Patrick Areghan, has hinted that the body may start conducting the West African Senior School Certificate Examination for Nigerians abroad in no distant time.

Areghan gave the hint while speaking on digitalising the operations of the council and his tenure that ends on October 1.

He said, “I also want WAEC to be more visible on the international stage. I want to see, through the cooperation of the sub-region, how we can take WAEC overseas, that is, how Nigerian children in the diaspora can sit for WASSCE overseas.

“That, again, is what I want WAEC to do very shortly. That is one thing I wanted to do under my watch, but, again, as I said, it needs the cooperation of the sub-region, not just Nigeria, to take WASSCE overseas.”

The WAEC Head also said plans to introduce the Computer-Based Test mode in the administration of its examinations were at an advanced stage.

Areghan said that introducing the CBT mode of administrating some of the council’s examinations had been part of his vision for the body.

“We have already started something in terms of CBT examination. We have gone far with our planning and all of that, even in the sub-region, the registrar to the council is also doing something.

“But this is not as easy as some people will think. This is because we ask ourselves, how do we conduct CBT for practicals and essay papers?

“We can only readily do that in the case of objective questions. But so many people will not see it from that angle. They argue that some others are doing it, so why can’t WAEC do the same?

“Now, no one even talks about energy; how many schools are exposed to computer literacy? How many have computer facilities, and how many have electricity to run these things?

He said that even though practicals and theory examinations may be difficult to write on the computer, the council can start with the objectives.

The outgoing WAEC boss said that aside from the introduction of the CBT, he would like to see all the operations of the council fully digitalised shortly.