The Federal Government of Nigeria has introduced a uniform national framework for Continuous Assessment (CA), requiring major examination bodies, including the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO), to operate secure and interoperable student portals connected to the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI).

The policy applies to all public and government-approved private secondary schools across Nigeria. It also requires students’ National Learner Identity Numbers (NLIN) to be directly linked to their National Identification Numbers (NIN), creating a unified system for academic record tracking and efforts to reduce examination malpractice.

Beginning with the 2026/2027 academic session, schools will be required to comply with fixed nationwide deadlines for submitting continuous assessment records. Unlike previous practices that allowed institutions to upload records retroactively or at their convenience, the new framework requires digital portals to open and close at the same time across the country.

Under the timetable, first-term continuous assessment records must be submitted in January, second-term records in April, while third-term records are due in August.

Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, said the controlled submission periods are intended to prevent institutions from manipulating or falsifying students’ scores before final national examinations. The measure forms part of wider reforms aimed at improving the global competitiveness of Nigeria’s education system.

The framework also introduces stringent sanctions for institutions that breach the rules. Schools found guilty of fraudulent submissions, learner misrepresentation or examination malpractice may be blacklisted or immediately suspended.

Where a school is suspended, its access to the student portal will be withdrawn immediately, while students enrolled at the institution will be classified as orphaned.

Examination bodies must then notify the Ministry of Education in the affected state within two days. This will allow the students to be moved to nearby accredited schools or designated temporary centres, while preserving their cumulative academic records.

The new framework further changes how student transfers are handled. Any movement from one school to another must be formally initiated and confirmed through the central digital portal.

Because a student’s previous continuous assessment records are expected to move with them, individual schools will not be permitted to independently delete or modify historical academic entries.

The centralised digital system is designed to address longstanding difficulties faced by WAEC and NECO in reliably integrating senior secondary continuous assessment scores from SS1 through SS3 into students’ final graduation results.

Oversight of compliance with the policy will be handled directly by the Federal Ministry of Education through its Basic and Senior Secondary Departments.

A formal review of the framework is scheduled to take place after its first year of implementation.

Source: msme Africa online