By Godfrey AKON
The National Examinations Council, NECO, on Wednesday, disclosed that it has secured Federal Government’s appropriation to build seven offices under the government’s capital projects.
The council said it had since commenced the construction of 3 state offices in Kogi, Gombe, and Katsina States with its internally generated revenue, IGR.
Registrar of NECO, Prof Dantani Wushishi, disclosed this at the Annual Congress of Education Correspondents’ Association of Nigeria, ECAN, in Abuja, on Wednesday.
Wushishi said the appropriation is coming nearly 20 years that the council was not considered for any capital project by the government.
Speaking on the mode of NECO examinations, he said the complexity of NECO examination may not allow for immediate migration from paper to Computer Based Test, CBT.
He said NECO conducts about five examinations, and by virtue of the number of examinations, migrating to CBT would take a gradual process.
“For the fact that NECO is the largest examination body by virtue of the number of its examination we conduct, migrating to CBT is a critical issue.
“For JAMB, they are not examining candidates in so many subject areas so they find it very easy to embrace CBT in their examinations and do multiple choice in their exams.
“As far as NECO is concerned, if you look at the nature of our exams particularly in SSCE internal-for admissions into tertiary institutions, every year we examine students close to 1.5 million which is a large number.
“For these 1.5 million candidates, we examine these candidates in 76 different subjects and more than 150 different papers.
“So, if we look at the complexity of this exams, particularly the essays where we have different papers, going CBT is something that experts need to sit and look at the nitty gritty of the exams,” he said.
The NECO boss used to occasion to reel out some of the key milestones recorded to strengthen NECO’s examination processes and boost the integrity of the council since his assumption of office in 2021.
According to him, the council has so far examined 34 million Nigerian students as well as conducted trial testing exams for selection of best items in its examination.
Wushishi said NECO printed a backlog of certificates for Senior School Certificate Examination, SSCE, Internal and External from 2018 to 2021 and also printed the backlog of certificates for Basic Education Certificate Examination, BECE, from 2011-2022.
“Upon my assumption to office on 26th July, 2024, 1 embarked on a tour of our offices round the Country, and this resulted to the formulation of policies that have brought a positive turn-around in the Council.
He noted that some of the achievements recorded by the council are the “Provision of e-library to enhance access to information and data on educational assessment with a view to enhancing job efficiency in Test Development, Quality Assurance and curbing examination malpractice and other infractions associated with public examinations in 2022.
“Introduced the use of stanine software in determining Grade Boundaries for BECE, SSCE Internal and SSCE External examinations which is an innovation in the history of NECO. This brings to rest the use of manual method in determining grade boundaries in 2022.
“Under my Leadership, the Council has presented establishment restructuring plan to office of the Head of Service of the Federation to unbundle and restructure Departments in the Council in 2022, leading to the creation of more departments and appointment of Directors,” he said.
Other achievements include: unveiling of NECO e-verify App for Result Verification/Confirmation in 2023, provision of well-equipped Statistics and Data Analysis Studio in the Department of Psychometrics in 2022, and provision of a 500 KVA Transformer at the Information and Communication Technology Department.
Others are an upgrade of the bandwidth of 20mph recently installed for internet services to 50 mph because it was found to be inadequate to service the staff effectively and efficiently in 2022, among other numerous achievements.
