* Laments N2.8b Debt Burden
By Princess Simon (Bureau Chief North Central, in Minna)
The National Examination Council (NECO), has released the results of the 2020/2021 Senior School Certificate Examination for internal students.
This was announced by the Registrar/Chief Executive of the National Examination Council (NECO), Professor Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, at a press briefing/release at the NECO headquarters in Minna, Niger State capital, on Friday, October 29, 2021.
He said despite the challenges which are not limited to a spate of insecurity, the examinations were ‘very successful.
The NECO 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 results as against the usual 90 days deadline by the examination body.
A total of one thousand, one hundred and nineteen (1, 119) candidates with ‘Special Needs’ registered and participated in 2020/2021 Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) (internal) out of the 1, 233, 631 candidates that registered for the examination.
Prof. Wushishi said, “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 apologize 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 a similar examination in the year, 2020 with a 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.
The NECO Registrar who attributed the increase to the level of awareness said, “The number of candidates with Special Needs is 1, 119 including; 174 candidates with autism, 708 deaf, and 178 visually impaired persons”.
On the issue of the N2.8 billion debt to NECO by state governments, the Registrar said 97 percent of the debt by northern state governments is one of the biggest challenges weighing the examination body down. NNL.
