 Let me begin by bringing the very warm felicitations of President Muhammad Ibu Hari, who would have been here himself, but has asked me to represent him. And also to say that I'm also here in my own personal capacity because I'm a teacher, and of course I'm very interested in their further work. So I'm delighted to be here with you on this auspicious occasion of the annual meeting and of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the West African Examination Council. And I'm pleased that Nigeria is the host of this very special meeting, the platinum anniversary of the Council. Please accept our heartfelt congratulations on 70 exceptional years of service to education in our sub-region. Currently more than 90% of educated adults in English-speaking West African countries are products of Wayek, one way or the other. Wayek deserves commendation for being the only sub-regional organization established in the colonial era in Anglican West Africa that has not only survived the pull of the centrifugal forces of the post-independence era, but has also continued to work stronger. But Wayek's contributions go beyond that of just being an examination body to that of promoting sustainable human resource capacity, the integration and cooperation of West African states. And in these past 70 years, Wayek has shown its own resilience by the challenges that it has faced and has faced them forthrightly, resolving issues, for example, of exam malpractice and evolving steadily and confidently into a more technology-driven organization. But with 70 years, with 70 years behind us, it's now time to begin to prepare for the next 70 years. And it is clear that these coming decades will come with vastly different challenges and opportunities. There are at least three issues that present new challenges and, of course, opportunities. The first is the African continent of free trade area and its implications for the growth of institutions. The second is the Wayek curriculum, teaching and examinations relevant to 21st century needs. And the third issue is the role of technology in the work of Wayek, beginning with the African free trade continental area. Our continent is evolving before our very eyes. The African continent of free trade area, which is an ambitious trade pact to form one of the world's largest free trade areas by bringing together almost 1.3 million people across 54 African countries and aiming to produce a single market for goods and services in order to deepen economic integration in Africa. What it means, of course, is that there is room for greater reach and expansion for regional organizations like Wayek just following in the trail of the AFCTA. The second are the huge changes to how we work, how we do business, and how we live in the global economy that is the reality of the 21st century. With the amazing advances in technology, talent is more mobile and there is greater competition for a well-trained, innovative, and resourceful human capacity. The 21st century economy requires a different skill set, a skill set that involves problem solving and innovation. These are key requirements for relevance and employability in the 21st century. So what should Wayek do? And let me digress a little here. A while back I saw on Facebook an interesting video of a teacher who explained so eloquently the difference between the Wayek curriculum, the teaching of the Wayek curriculum, and the IGCSE, the teaching of that curriculum. I should give an example. She said, if in a year seven geography class, the topic is the solar system, and the class teacher teaching the Wayek curriculum will come to the front of the class, write the topic, and perhaps the objective of the class, and then write notes, explain to the students that there are eight planets in the solar system, and at the end of the class the teacher may ask, you know, the class what they've learned and how many planets there are in the solar system. But the teaching of the IGCSE is different. First the teacher lets everyone know, let all the students know that there are eight planets, then divides the class into eight groups. Each group will be given a planet to research on, and at the end of the research, each group makes a presentation to the whole class. The advantage of this method is of course obvious. First the students do the research, which improves their digital literacy for a start. Second they learn to collaborate, which is critical to innovation, and then they choose, and then of course they choose the mode of their presentation to the class, which is also important because that will involve creativity, imagination, and all of that. They may choose to present with a song, or a poster, or a drama piece, and of course all of this involves creativity and imagination. The essential difference is that whereas the teaching and delivery of the West African School Certificate, for example, encourages learning by rote. The IGCSE incorporates the teaching of core skills, deep learning skills as they are described today, critical thinking, creativity, imagination, problem-solving skills, and collaboration. These are essential skills that young people need today to be competitive, and to be prepared for life and work in the global economy. So it seems to me that in the next few years, WIAC's curriculum and examinations and the teaching must be designed to test for and support these core skills. And of course with the successes that WIAC has experienced that has demonstrated in the last 70 years, they are adapting to these new ways and these new ways of thinking, shouldn't present any problem at all. This is the Africa that WIAC must prepare our children for, an Africa that will need world-class young people who have strong interpersonal, innovative, entrepreneurial, critical, and creative thinking skills, amongst others. I think it's also crucial that WIAC must continually embrace technology and there is no option today and we must commend WIAC again for the technological innovations that have been implemented so far, which includes biometric verifications, online registration, computer-based tests, and of course the digital certification which has been mentioned already. However, we can and must go further. A key aspect of technological advancement in examinations that WIAC must commit to implementing is the online examinations which speaks to exams conducted remotely on a computer with high-speed internet. Of course the issue here obviously is the infrastructure that is required for that. High-speed internet of course means that we must have digital infrastructure that is able to carry this type, that is able to carry the type of innovation that we are talking about which is the business of government and the private sector. But we must begin to think along these lines. A shift from offline to online examinations has immense advantages. Of course it will reduce the current overall logistic costs. It will break geographic barriers, enabling a wider reach and participation. People from different parts of the world will be able to do these online exams. It will provide real-time analytical assessment, reports to examiners and candidates and of course further curb the menace of examination of more practices through AI-based proctoring technology and all manner of other innovations that are now important in checking examination of more practices. Of course another technological innovation is the on-screen marking and I'm told that already quite a bit of that is being done or sometimes called digital evaluation. A method of marking paper-based candidate responses using a computer. And as I said, I'm told that already YAC is implementing aspects of this. But this technology enhances the quality of evaluation of descriptive answer scripts with a transparent, secure and efficient framework. So I think that these are innovations that we will need to engage in the next in the next few years. In any event, you know, whether we like it or not, innovation will catch up with us and innovation is really the way to go. The direction that the world is moving in is such that we will have no choice but to follow suit. It's clear that the future of all our institutions, including YAC will depend on how well we embrace technological innovation and the ability to reinvent ourselves in an ever-changing world. I think YAC has shown through the years that it has the capacity and dynamism to evolve and remain relevant. So on behalf of the government and the citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria I reaffirm our support for the West African Examination and also extend our very warm felicitations, particularly to our brothers and sisters from the four other member countries Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia who are attending this ceremony virtually. Mr. Chairman, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I now formally declare open the 70th annual meeting of the West African Examination ceremony.