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DVLA launches system to test driver competence

A DVLA staff demonstrating the operation of the CBT to the acting Chief Executive Officer of the DVLA, Mr R.P. Beckley. (second right) Standing third right is Otumfuo’s Manwerehene, Baafuor Ossei Hyeaman Brantuo VI.After successfully designing and implementing the Computer Based Testing (CBT) system to ascertain the competence of drivers before issuing licences to them, the Driver, Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA) has formally launched the system in the northern sector of Ghana, in Kumasi.

Under the new system, all drivers  scheduled to undergo theoretical tests for driving licences will now go through computer tests instead of the paper-based  testing.

The change to CBT, according to the authorities of the DVLA, was to ensure that only competent, knowledgeable and skillful people were granted driving licences .

Launching the programme in Kumasi, the acting Chief Executive of the DVLA, Mr Rudolph Perfect Beckley, noted that the CBT had become necessary in view of the fact that the paper based test was associated with very high human “interference, and was also very expensive to administer, in terms of cost and time.”

Mr Beckley said: “The new system of testing offers flexible delivery of tests through test administration windows, where applicants realise optimum convenience when they take the test.”

He said the system also enhanced the security of the test items, provided consistency and reliability in the administration of the test, and also provided the same platform for assessing the competencies of drivers irrespective of their status, ethnic group and gender.

Furthermore, the system captures data on the test.

Explaining, he said: “it is able to capture the applicants’ name, time of starting the test, end time, date, test centre, and all valuable information about  the candidate.“

Expressing concern about the spate of accidents  across the country over the years and their negative impact on the socio-economic development of the country, Mr Beckley said: “ As we embark on this reform process, we are mindful of the fact that the carnage on our roads is colossal and will require the collective efforts of all of us to arrest the situation.

“We are also aware that it is only through continuous review of our systems and processes that we can establish a lot of credibility in the way we do things as an authority,” he noted, adding, “ introducing this new scheme is a demonstration of the authority’s commitment in meeting its obligation to reduce casualty.”

He said the launch of the new scheme was  also to “proclaim an end to the indiscipline on the part of some officers of the DVLA, the recriminations and perception of corruption that for far too long had strangled and bedeviled our organisation.”

He stressed that the time had come for them to do away with the old ways of doing things to pave way for innovative ways.

In his address, the Asantehene’s Manwerehene,  Baafuor Ossei Hyeaman Brantuo VI, commended the DVLA for introducing the new system of testing the competence of drivers.

He said another significant innovation introduced by the DVLA was the setting up of private vehicle test stations through a public-private partnership.

That innovation, he said, had ensured that “vehicles that renew their roadworthy certificates are not inspected only visually, but are tested mechanically in order to ensure that vehicles that ply our roads are truly roadworthy”

Baafuor Brantuo  described the CBT as “an indispensable innovation that will ensure that we have very good drivers on our roads and that with a little more effort we can very soon begin to see a downward trend in the rate of accidents in the country.”

“Given the unacceptable high rate of accidents in the country, coupled with the repercussions of such happenings, every heart must be gladdened that the DVLA is coming out with a programme whose intention is to help reduce road crashes and ultimately reduce road accidents in the country,” he noted.

By George Ernest Asare/Daily Graphic/Ghana

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