With keen interest I have listened to and read many opinions on the decision of the federal government to scrap the computer based exams for candidates seeking admission into the university. I agree that the world is going technological and Nigeria should fall in line and not lag behind. but that assertion should be taken with a pinch of salt. Nigeria as much as I can remember is an underdeveloped country that lacks basic amenities (socially and infrastructure wise ) to sustain her population. Haven said that, it will be nice if we remember that we count one before counting three. Jumping to the university level to introduce the CBT was a wrong move in the first place. Have we taken time to ask ourselves why since the introduction of the CBT by the universities and jamb there have been mass failures in terms of candidates performance? The answer is not far fetched. some might rush to conclude that its because students no longer read their books, or because the Nigeria education is declining. I will agree to that on a 10% rate. the simple answer is that most of the candidates are not computer literates. I happened to serve in Ekiti state (comprehensive secondary school Ijesamodu) during my service year and I can authoritatively tell you that there was only one computer in that school which the students don't have access to. Most of these students pay every term a computer fee but never see the computer till they left secondary school. let's even flash back a little for some of us that did computer training or even the first time we handled a mouse. what was it like? For me, I had to receive a resounding slap from my instructor before the cursor pointer stopped running rampage on the monitor's screen. imagine what's like in exam condition for a student who passed out from one remote secondary school sitting on the floor to receive his/her classes and never saw or used a computer to be faced with the challenge of writing exams with a computer. He/she will only be struggling to understand the mystery before him/her till his/her time elapses. In 2012 in my undergraduate days, I had a relative who came from the village to write post ume in my school (Federal University of Technology Minna ). she never had encountered a computer before. she went into the exam center with the hope of being given question paper and answer booklet, only for her to be faced with the challenge of operating a computer. the fear and the fact she never used a computer before made her cry in the e-centre when she saw that her time was remaining 7minutes. she scored 30 over 400. not because she isn't intelligent but because she couldn't operate a computer. I ended up taking the blame for not telling her she was going to write her exams with a computer. There are thousands of the students who have encountered this likely situation, and failed not because they were not intelligent, but because they were computer illiterates. If we must flow with the technological world, then we must go back to the grassroots. Groom these children in the use of computer from primary to secondary level adequately before introducing the CBT stuff. My thoughts though. massinola

please bring up a constructive argument for or against. thanks

massinola:
please bring up a constructive argument for or against. thanks

what's this one saying , or are you reporting live from Malawi?