2026 May/June exams: WAEC, NECO to adopt  full CBT— Alausa

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) would fully adopt computer-based testing (CBT) for their examinations starting from May/June 2026.

Tunji Alausa, the minister of education, revealed this during the monitoring of ongoing examinations alongside officials of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), on Monday, April 28, in Bwari, Abuja.

Alausa explained that both WAEC and NECO would begin administering their objective papers using CBT starting this November.

However, he emphasised that full adoption of CBT, covering both essay and objective components, would commence by the May/June 2026 examination season.

“If JAMB can successfully conduct CBT exams for more than 2.2 million candidates, WAEC and NECO can do the same.  “We are going to get WAEC and NECO to also start their objective exam on CBT,” he said.

The minister reiterated the federal government’s commitment to fully transition to CBT, stating that by WAEC examinations for May/June 2026 will be fully CBT.
“By 2026, exams which will come up in May/June, both the objectives and the essay will be fully on CBT. That is how we can eliminate exam malpractices,” the minister said.

Alausa, moreover, said that a committee has been set up to review examination standards across the country; and that recommendations from the review committee are expected to be submitted next month, indicating broader reforms within the education sector.

Ishaq Oloyede, the registrar at JAMB, earlier during the monitoring exercise, addressed concerns regarding the early timing of examination schedules.

Oloyede explained that the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) had consistently started at 8:00 a.m.
“We have always started our exams at 8 o’clock. The first session is 8 o’clock, the second session 10:30 am, the third session 1 p.m., and the fourth session 3:30 pm,” he said.

JAMB registrar further explained that candidates were required to be present by 6:30 am. to complete the accreditation process before the examinations begin.

However, he waved aside complaints about early arrival times, stating that it was a necessary measure to ensure proper candidate screening.

He debunked claims that candidates were posted to centres they did not select during registration. He said investigations showed that there were no such incidents during the ongoing examinations.

Meanwhile, he confirmed that over 1.6 million candidates out of the over two million registered had completed their examinations, leaving about 50,000 candidates yet to write theirs.