By Correspondent in Minna.
The Registrar/Chief Executive of National Examination Council (NECO), Professor Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi says the N2.8 billion debt by state governments, 97 per cent of the debt by northern state governments, is one of the biggest challenges weighing the examination body down.
A total of one thousand, one hundred and nineteen (1, 119) candidates with ‘Special Needs’ registered and participated in the 2020/2021 Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) (internal) out of the 1, 233, 631 candidates that registered for the examination.
Professor Wushishi disclosed this at a press briefing/release of the 2020/2021 SSCE (internal) at the NECO headquarters, Minna however said despite the challenges which is not limited to spate of insecurity, the examinations were, ‘very successful’.
The Registrar/Chief Executive started the briefing by apologizing to students that sat for the examination, their parents and the Nigerian public for the delay in the release of the resuls as against the usual 90 days deadline by the examination body.
“The practice with NECO before now is that, we release the results within 90 days after the last paper, this time we had very serious challenges internal and external and lapses responsible for this delay”.
Giving details of how insecurity in parts of the country compounded the challenges NECO faced between last year and now the Registrar said, “We sincerely apologise to all parents and Nigerians that this lapses we assure that it will never happen again under my watch”.
According to Professor Wushishi, “A total of 1, 233, 631 candidates registered for the examination, but a total of 1, 226, 796 candidates actually sat for the examination, including 1, 119 Special Needs candidates”.
Further breakdown of the results indicates that, 653, 418 male students wrote the examination as against the 573,373 female students, the Registrar said and attributed the successes to the determination of not only NECO staff but the entire management.
A total of 878, 925 students scored five credits including English and Mathematics which represents, 71.64 percent, adding however that, a total of 1, 226, 796 candidates obtained five credits irrespective of English and Mathematics as against the 1, 112,14 recorded last year.
On the cases of malpractices, Professor Wushishi told journalists that a total of 20, 030 cases of malpractice were recorded as against the 34, 470 cases recorded during similar examination in the year, 2020 with significant decline of 2.1 percent.
Meanwhile, the Registrar has also disclosed that the number of candidates with Special Needs that participated in the 2020/2021 NECO SSCE (internal) increased to 1, 119 as against last year’s 160 candidates.
