*Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Garden City trains students of KNC Buguma on computer based Exams.*
In line with preparing students for external examinations and getting them familiar with computer based testing, the Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Garden City held a one day training on computer based test (CBT) for students in senior secondary schools.
The training held at the Kalabari National College KNC Buguma, Asari Toru local government area of Rivers State.
President Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Garden City, Rotarian Karina Igonikon explained that educational testing and examinations is gradually adopting computer based test and so it was important that students in secondary schools in the rural communities become abreast with CBT.
She said given that the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board JAMB examinations have strictly adopted computer based testing for the UTME examinations, it is essential that students are familiar with it to excel at the exams.
"We observed that many students are not used to computer based testing because all through their school years, they are tested with oral or written examinations until they get to write UTME -JAMB exams, which is compulsorily computer based.
Some of them don't know how to log in or navigate their way through and so they end up performing poorly having scores like 10 marks or 25 marks over 400 as their JAMB score - not because they are not intelligent, but because they are not familiar with computer based testing.
This is why the Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Garden City decided to take on this project as one her basic education and literacy projects targeting students who would soon write the JAMB exams in the rural communities, to train and prepare them."
Dr. Peace Enefaa Ekine, founder, PGI Community Project, a partner on the training, also underscored the need for students to get acquainted with the software of the CBT testing as it would provide opportunity to simulate the real exam conditions so the students adapt to it.
She added that the exams scholars question software used for the training covers the entire JAMB syllabus and enables students know where they are with the syllabus.
"Computer based test and exams are time dependent. Your success is not all about how much you know, but how fast you can answer questions. Exams scholars enable you to know, measure and increase your speed of answering questions.
So we want more secondary schools to benefit from this unique training, where they can optimize their intellectual skills, thereby performing excellently well when the exam comes." She says.
Director Special Duties, Rivers State Senior Secondary Schools Board, Stephen Okachi lauded Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Garden City for the training in manpower development of the students.
He charged the students to make the most of the opportunity to learn computer based testing not just for the JAMB examinations but also for subsequent exams that is computer based.
The students expressed delight at the training saying it will help those of them who would sit for the JAMB examinations in few weeks to adequately prepare for it.
Mrs Ivy George-Dennis, a teacher in the school assured that they would follow up with the students to see that impact of the training on their JAMB results so as to give quality feedback on the impact of the training.
"This training doesn't just end today. We have the software in our systems which would be open to the students to come and practice. Then we would also follow up with their JAMB results because we know them to their homes, so its easy to get to them because it's from their results that we would see how impactful this training has been." She says.
Mr. Okachi from the Senior Secondary School Board encouraged other like minded organisations to take a leaf from the Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Garden City to partner with the Senior Secondary Schools Board as they are always willing to collaborate in such educational trainings that would benefit the students especially in areas of manpower development.
