The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) says it is set to acquire three technological devices known as Magic Scanners PS 1000 for authentication of documents and responses.
According to Vanguard, the Council’s Head of National Office (HNO), Mr. Olu Adenipekun, made the disclosure on Thursday in Lagos at a news conference to announce WAEC’s hosting of the 37th annual conference of the Association for Educational Assessment in Africa (AEAA). He disclosed that the annual conference will take place in Abuja from Aug. 5 to Aug. 9, with the theme: “Innovations in Educational Assessment”, according to Adenipekun.
He said that participants at the conference would come from all parts of the world. According to him, a major issue to be discussed at the conference would be innovation, stressing that technology had turned the world into a global village.
“This conference is all about coming together to encourage relevant assessment activities among members. Participants will want to see how they are responding to new challenges, financing, as well as the development of human capital.
“This will enable us to share knowledge on issues of evaluation and assessment, and sponsor international participation in the field of educational testing and assessment within member-countries. “One thing that will be coming on board is how we can apply technology to improve our service delivery.
“The place of technology in the education sector is one thing that will take the centre stage by looking at how innovations and technologies can be deployed in the conduct of public examinations in Nigeria.
“In this regard, therefore, WAEC has concluded plans to acquire three Magic Scanner PS 1000 from a company in the UK which has shown interest to come and unveil this technology at the conference. “This Magic Scanner will be used to authenticate documents and responses before they are taken to the clouds, ‘’ he said.