By Rosemary Ogbonnaya
The issue of gender inequality in the Federal Unity Schools will soon be a thing of the past as more female candidates sat for 2022/ 2023 National Common Entrance Examination,NECO, for admission into Federal Unity Colleges nationwide.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu disclosed this at the weekend when he led some top ministry officials and NECO officials on a monitoring exercise in some centres in Abuja.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo, the Minister of Education said out of total of 69,828 candidates that registered for the National Common Entrance Examination about 36,855 applicants were female, this is according to him, far better than what the colleges used to have in the previous years.
Expressing his satisfaction over he described as a great improvement in bridging gender inequality gap in Nigerian education, Adamu said the figure of the female applicants was more than their male counterparts.
“Of the 69,8 28, we have 36,855 female applicants while the balance of 32,000 plus are male,” said Minister.
The schools monitored by the Minister included Government Secondary School, Lugbe; Junior Secondary School, Lugbe; and Federal Government College, Kwali, Abuja.
Speaking on the general conduct of the Examination, Adamu described the whole process as hitch-free and peaceful.
” As we are monitoring here, we are also gathering reports from other states and the reports we have gathered so far, the process has been hitch -free and as we speak, the Minister of State for Education, Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba is monitoring the exercise in Lagos State and so far so good,” he said.
While responding on addressing the fear that about 69, 828 candidates will jostling for admission spaces in 104 Federal Unity Colleges, the Minister said the laid out standards and criteria would strictly be adhered to in the selection of successful candidates.
“As far as Nigerian basic education is concerned, and in respect to the junior and secondary schools, the unity schools still remain the best, so for you to get into it, it has to be competitive.
“We are not looking at taking all the 69,000 plus, we are taking the best of the 69,000 plus and there are standards that measure what you take.
“So the standard and criteria have been put on the ground, so I don’t see us having a problem with all that,” he said.
Also, speaking, the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, NECO, Prof. Ibrahim Wushishi affirmed that the advocacy exercise carried out in some parts of the country seeking that NECO examinations be made compulsory in states has yielded good results as there was an improved figure in the number of candidates that registered this year.
Wushishi revealed that Lagos State registered highest number of candidates for this year’s examination.
“Lagos state registered the highest number of candidates with 19,516 candidates, while the least registered state is Kebbi with 74 candidates; they had 37 males and 37 females,” he said.
