The National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, is spearheading efforts to use local software application to remedy examination malpractice and failure in the country. The efforts resulted in the endorsement of exam software, BrainFriend which was designed to reduce mass failure in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, UTME organised by Joint Admissions Matriculation Board, JAMB, among other examinations.
Two companies, Cinfores Limited and WaveTek Nigeria which developed the software, last week signed a memorandum of understanding witnessed by the Technology Agency.

According to the companies, the solution was developed to address the increasing rate of mass failure in national examinations in Nigeria through the use of Information and Communication Technology.
The solution according to the companies will be a game changer and make more candidates to be successful in their national exams especially the forthcoming JAMB UTME and related exams.

Meanwhile, the partners have customized a special version, JAMB BrainFriend, for the forthcoming 2015 JAMB UTME and expressed optimism that it could stamp out mass failure and high rate of examination fraud in the country.

Local content

Speaking on the development, the Director General of NITDA, Mr. Peter Jack, said the agency keyed into the initiative as part of its effort to deepen and encourage local content development in education and other sectors of the economy as mandated by the ACT setting up the agency.

“Based on the transformation agenda of Mr. President, the Federal Government of Nigeria is doing everything possible to ensure that the Nigerian educational system is improved and made world class.“There is certain decline in quality of education in our country.
“ The mass failure in UTME and other national examinations in recent years, is a mixture of many things including the non-availability of quality local resources to change the tide of mass failure and exam malpractice that has plagued the nation,” he said.

He said that NITDA as an IT agency was committed to transforming every sector in the country through the introduction of ICT solutions.
He pointed out that in its various efforts to ensure qualitative education in the country, NITDA would engage various local and international organisations to develop locally adapted solutions that will meet the needs of the sector.

He added that the agency would do everything possible to support the solution and make it available to all the NITDA digital centres across the country, to enable the candidates access the software. More so, Jack promised to reach out to the NCC and the USPF to make available the software in their Community Communication Centres in other to extend the reach of the software to all Nigerian students, especially the candidates who cannot afford either a PC or mobile device to activate the software for their personal use.

Why BrainFriend?
In his remarks, the Managing Director of Cinfores Limited, Mr. Asawo Ibifuro, said the software has been approved by the Federal Ministry of Education, NERDC and NITDA.
He explained that the customized version has many features including over 20,000 questions, answers and explanations, 19 JAMB subjects/ subject combinations for the major disciplines, prototype past JAMB questions, career counseling guide, quick references and study notes, performance tracking, summary and questions on the UTME 2015 special, among others.

Also, the Managing Director of WaveTek Nigeria Limited, Mr. Ken Spann, said the two companies realized the danger of mass examination failure in Nigeria, a reason, he said informed the development of JAMB BrainFriend software.

Spann who had earlier spent about eleven years promoting Microsoft Education via Microsoft IT Academies at Microsoft USA and Nigeria respectively, further enthused that, “Through WaveTek’s strong network in education, we are collaborating with Cinfores as their marketing partner and ensuring that BrainFriend is used by the over 1.4 million candidates registered for JAMB UTME scheduled for March, 2015″.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/01/brainfriend-software-reduce-mass-failure-jamb-utme/