Follow Us on Google
From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
Registrar of the National Examination Council (NECO), Prof. Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, has said that the body registered less candidates in this year’s examination than last year.
The registrar said that while the examination body registered 1, 205, 888 candidates this year, last year it was 1, 209, 000.
Of this number, the registrar disclosed that 661, 074 were males and 584, 814 were females.
He also said that states are indebted to the council to the tune of N3 billion
Wushishi who spoke while monitoring this year’s NECO examination in some centres in Jos, the Plateau state capital, on Friday, said that a lot of factors were responsible for the shortfall.
He said that since the registration comes from states, they could chose the number they could register due to their personal reasons and circumstances.
Secondly, Wushishi said that the economic situation in the country might have caused some parents and schools not to register candidates for the examination.
He said, “This year we recorded a shortfall in the number of students that registered for the examination. This could be as a result of many factors.
“States are majorly those that register candidates from their states and they choose whom they are going to register for obvious reasons based on their own considerations and coupled with the present economic conditions in the country could have made some parents in private schools not to be able to register their students.
“Again, we are very very strict in maintaining the closing date for registration. Though we extended the date for registration, but there were states that came thereafter to register their candidates. Some came with about 140 and some came with less. We told them we had extended the date and there is no more extension.
“So these could have contributed to the drop in the drop in registration of candidates.”
The registrar said that the tour, which started on July 24, had taken his team to Northwestern states of Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi and Plateau states, adding that the same exercise was done in South West last year with the intention of going to the South South and Southeast by next year.
Wushishi said that so far the examination did not witness any hitches, as all the materials were delivered timely.
On whether the security situation might have hampered the conduct of the examination, the registrar said that they were able to take care of the contingencies.
The registrar said, “We did not witness much issues as much as the security challenges are concerned. For instance in Zamfara, where serious security challenges are endemic, candidates were moved to urban areas. Even in Adamawa where there was curfew, we still conducted the examination. In Imo, where there are sit-at-home, we still had the examination.
On the level of indebtedness of states to the council, Wushishi said that some states are defraying part of the N3 billion they owe the council.
The registrar said, “Yes some states are owing, but in fairness to them, they are responding positively. After the current examination, if they fail to respond to the deadline they have chosen to pay, then we assess the level of indebtedness from each state. Last year, we were owed N3 billion, but as they register new candidates, they are also remitting part of their previous debts.”
