Test Fairness of the National Common Entrance Examination in Nigeria: Implications for School Counselling

Abstract

Test fairness is one of the qualities of a good test. It ensures relative comparability and
reduces biases that tend to portray education as a factor of inequality i.e. widening the
gap between the rich and the poor even within the public school context. The paper
focused on the National Common Entrance Examination in a context of remarkable
differences in the quality of schools, being subjected to the same examination with
similar evaluation parameters. Area of test fairness concerns includes: fairly wellfunded
schools and the impoverished ones treated as common and test and
measurement; aptitude subjects are taught through the levels/classes of private and
model schools while this is not the case with most public schools (i.e. L.E.A. Schools).
Undesirable effects of the examination were examined. Such effects include coaching
and cramming which may not promote learning but are designed primarily to pass the
test. This may also affect the predictive validity of the aptitude test. Implications for
counselling include advocacy to operationalize the concept of school as an agent of
education to guarantee learning for all, and not as a mere selection mechanism for those
who passed the test. Accreditation of schools should apply to all levels including
primary schools to reduce the gap in the infrastructure of fairly well-funded schools and
the ones that have experienced ritualized deprivation.