Experts urge teacher training as AI tools threaten exam integrity in Nigerian schools
- Education stakeholders in Lagos and Abuja called for better teacher training and clearer policies on artificial intelligence.
- Wholesome Character warned that AI is being used to cheat in exams and could widen the gap between rich and poor students.
- Lagos officials pointed to free AI training and teacher programmes already running in the state.
Education experts and officials have called for stronger teacher training and clear policies to protect the integrity of examinations as artificial intelligence tools become easier for students to misuse.
The calls came from two separate events: a forum in Lagos themed 'Exam Integrity, Ethics, Policy and Future Readiness', organised by the non-governmental group Wholesome Character, and a sensitisation programme in Abuja run by the Change a Child Community Initiative at schools in Dutse Alhaji and Kubwa, Bwari Area Council.
At the Lagos forum, Wholesome Character founder Ifedayo Adeoba said AI is increasingly being used to get around exam rules. She pointed to the 167,486 candidates whose results the West African Examinations Council withheld in 2026 over malpractice, and warned that a phone that once carried a leaked question can now carry a machine that answers any question in seconds.
Adeoba also raised concern about unequal access to technology. She warned that if AI becomes a tool only for children whose parents can afford it, what should be the country's greatest equaliser could become its greatest divider.
She urged schools to look beyond surveillance and consider other ways of testing what students truly understand, and advised students to keep their own powers of reasoning rather than leaning entirely on automated help.
"Retain the power of your mind, retain the power to think, retain the sense of judgment," she said, adding that employers and the country need young people who can apply their minds, not lazy thinkers.
Lagos and FCT push training
Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Science and Technology, Olatunbosun Alake, said the state is running the Eko AI Academy, which offers free practical training to more than 10,000 residents, alongside teacher training through the Teaching Service Commission across all six education districts.
Alake said AI will not replace teachers, describing them as the strongest safeguard, and said teachers who understand the technology can guide students better.
In Abuja, the FCT Secondary Education Board's desk officer for Robotic Education, Aishatu Jafaar Suleiman, said teachers urgently need training and retraining to close the gap between them and their students. She said the FCT administration under Minister Nyesom Wike has improved school renovation and learning materials, but more is needed in teacher development.
"We are not asking for too much, but for training and retraining so that we can give our best," she said, adding that she still pays for online courses to keep her own skills current.
Blessing Okwuchukwu Awamba, founder of Change a Child Community Initiative, said the programme is designed to run for five years and expand to more states, with themes chosen to match the social and economic challenges in each area.
What happens next
The sources did not say whether new national rules on AI in schools are being drafted. For now, the push is coming from state programmes and civil society groups, with teacher training at the centre of both.
