The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has unveiled a new technology, to ease access to quality data and insights into the country’s educational sector.
The technology, known as Educational Statistics (EDUSTAT) platform, is another addition introduced by the council to the list of its technologie.
The addition is in line with its resolve to do things differently and move with current trends.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony, the Head of National Office (HNO), WAEC, Mr Patrick Areghan, described the platform as a game changer.
According to him, the new product by the council, EDUSTAT, is borne out of the desire to provide stakeholders with a reliable platform that provides educational insights
He listed such stakeholders as researchers, funding agencies, government institutions, school administrators, and parents.
Areghan said that the educational insights were collected from multiple sources and delivered in simplified graphs, summaries and dashboards, that would assist in enhancing their decisions.
He said that the core benefit of the new technology was access to a comprehensive ‘Interactive Web Report’.
Areghan noted that the innovation was done to take the edge off the manual access to data by stakeholders.
He said it was also to improve the quality of service delivery and generate more revenue for the examination body.
The WAEC boss added that for many stakeholders, lack of quality data had led to inconsistencies and offered multiple data copies in education.
According to him, for others, incorrect data and the absence of analytics have led to false facts, resulting in bad decision making and loss of revenue in some cases.
“WAEC identified these issues and sought to solve the problem through its new EDUSTAT product, which addresses poor infrastructure and the manual process of assessing educational insights and statistics.
“Council again leverages technology, detailed data analysis and insights to establish itself as a leading light in the educational sector and a future brand by introducing this Educational Statistical Platform.
“As you all know, the new world is smarter and more instant. The access to statistical data analysis, its collation, interpretation and presentation cannot be different.
“Businesses, and organisations alike, need every edge and advantage they can get, to improve service delivery.
“Thanks to the rapidly changing markets, economic uncertainties, shifting political landscape, customer focus and even the global Pandemic, which has made the statistical analysis more sought-after by researchers for fact analysis and findings,” he said..
He stated that WAEC was committed to its mission of remaining Africa’s foremost examining body, providing qualitative and reliable educational assessment.
The HNO added that the council would also continue to strive to encourage academic and moral excellence and promote sustainable human resource development and international cooperation.
Listing other benefits of the new technology, Areghan said that the platform offered detailed and smart statistical insights into the education and assessment dynamics.
He said the platform does so using historical and current data to provide detailed intelligence for stakeholders across the globe, in a smart and easily accessible manner.
“One of the key features of this platform is its ability to analyze data in real-time. This means that educators can get immediate feedback on how their students are performing, enabling them to adjust their teaching strategies as needed.
“Additionally, the platform is designed to be user-friendly and customizable, allowing educators to tailor it to their specific needs and preferences.
“This implies EDUSTAT is an innovative educational statistic platform designed to leverage WAEC’s comprehensive and reliable database of over 50 million candidates who have been tested over the years.
“This platform results from years of research, development, collaboration and we are confident that it will revolutionise how data is accessed,” he said.
Areghan added that the new platform also aimed to change views about data analysis by providing users with easy-to-use tools to analyze and visualise data.
He stated that it offered a wide range of features that would benefit users, noting that for government agencies, it provided detailed statistics on student enrollment, graduation rates, and academic performance at various levels.
According to him, such information will help policymakers make data-driven decisions about education policy, funding, and program design.
“For schools, the platform offers student-level data on academic performance, attendance, and demographic information.
“This data can be used to identify areas of strength and weakness within the school and informed decisions about how to improve student outcomes.
“Institutions such as universities and colleges can also benefit from the platform, by accessing data on enrollment and academic performance of their students.
“This information can be used to identify areas where additional resources are needed to support students and improve overall performance.
“Similarly, the platform provides researchers with a comprehensive and intuitive way to track and analyze educational statistics. It is designed to be accessible to educators at all levels, from classroom teachers to school administrators and policymakers.
“With this platform, you can easily track student progress, identify areas of weakness, and make data-driven decisions to improve outcomes for all students,” he explained.
Areghan added that in meeting the growing global demands for corporate organisations, sometimes it took just one individual to come up with an innovative approach that would give the organisationa competitive edge.
The council boss noted that WAEC recognised the importance of data privacy and security, adding that as a result, it had ensured that the platform was built with the highest standards of data protection in mind.
He also noted that it was to ensure that all data were kept confidential and secure at all times.
“We are optimistic that our new educational statistics platform will be a game-changer for educators and students,” he said.
The Developer of the platform, SIDMACH Technology, said the innovation was convenient and easy to access on phone, laptops, desktops and other devices by any one, any where, in any part of the world.
Mr Akintunde Obawole, Product Manager said the technology had been with intelligence, with features that had made it easy and convenient payment choice.
Demonstrating how the technology worked, Obawole noted that the technology guides users on the spot, on what to see or do, as soon as one is logged in.
It is highly interactive, as it provides users with data, pictures, grafts and others,” he said.
