By Godfrey AKON
The National Examinations Council, NECO, has vowed to prosecute candidates engaged in examination malpractice in all examinations conducted by the council.
Registrar of NECO, Prof Ibrahim Wushishi, gave the warning on Thursday in Minna, Niger State, while announcing the release of the result of the November/December 2022 Senior School Certificate Examination, SSCE.
Wushishi, who lamented the lack of special tribunals to try examination offenders, however said NECO would blaze the trail by ensuring that offenders are dragged before regular courts to answer for their wrongs.
“If you look at the results, it has been an improvement over last year’s results. And if you look at malpractice cases, you find that we have been able to identify more malpractice cases than what we had last year,” he said.
He added that 11,419 candidates were booked for various forms of malpractice as against 4,454 in 2021, which shows a sharp rise in the number of malpractice cases.
The NECO boss explained that the rise in malpractice was as a result of strategies being put in place by the council and the fact that NECO supervisors complied with the monitoring strategies.
“This led to the blacklisting of four (4) supervisors, one (1) each from Rivers and Plateau States and two (2) from Ogun State for aiding and abetting as well as poor supervision.
“And you have this large number as a result of the fact that there is a large increase in the number of candidates that come to the media. And also you could also take this factor into consideration.
“External examination is not like the school based examination. So you have maybe crops of people that are desperate to be successful because they have this desire to further their education,” he said.
On the issue of some registration centres charging higher fees than the federal government-approved fee, he noted that as far as NECO is concerned, its fee is fixed for senior secondary certificate examination, internal and external, at N17,800.
Wushishi, who also announced the results of the 2022 external SSCE, said,
59,124 candidates sat for the exercise, with 31,316 males, representing 52.96 per cent while 27,808, representing 47.03 per cent were female.
He added that the number of candidates that sat for English Language is 58,012 out of which 44,162, representing 76.13 per cent got Credit and above, while the number of candidates that sat for Mathematics is 57,700, out of which 43,096, representing 74.69 per cent got Credit and above.
He further disclosed that the number of Candidates who got five Credits and above, including English Language and Mathematics is 33,914 representing 57.36 per cent.
“Also 46,825 candidates, representing 79.20% got five (5) Credits and above irrespective of English Language and Mathematics,” he said.
Recall that the 2022 Senior School Certificate Examination, SSCE, External was conducted by NECO from 21 November to 21 December 2022 and is being released 57 days today after.
Speaking further on the examination, Wushishi said, a total of 29 subjects were examined as was done in 2021.
