By Rosemary Ogbonnaya
National Examinations Council, NECO, has announced the release of Senior School Certificate Examinations, SSCE, international held on 29th October 2021.
Announcing the results at a press briefing, the Registrar / Chief Executive NECO, Prof. Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi also apologised to the candidates and their parents for the delay in the release of results, attributing the delay to some serious challenges faced by the Council orchestrated by some actions by agencies that have direct bearing on NECO’s operations.
Wushishi who said the release of the SSCE internal results was his first major assignment since his appointment explained that, “This is coming exactly one
hundred and nine (109) days since my appointment as Registrar/Chief Executive of this noble organization. As was the practice before, results were normally released latest ninety (90) days after the last written paper. This was not the case this year due to some serious challenges faced by the Council which made it impossible to achieve that feat. It came about as a result of some actions by agencies that have direct bearing on our operations. We sincerely apologize to the candidates and their parents for the delay in the release of results.”
Giving the breakdown of the results, Wushishi said a total number of candidates that registered for the examination stands at 1,233,631, with 657,389 male, representing 53.28% and
576,242 female, representing 46.71%.
He said the number of candidates that actually sat for the examination is 1226,796, with 653,418male representing 53.26% and
573,378 female representing 46.74%.
While number of candidates with Special Needs is 1,119, with the breakdown as follows: 59 Albinos, 174 with Autism, 708 Deaf and 178 visually impaired.
According to him, the number of candidates who made Credit and above in English Language is 945,853 representing 77.72%.
Number of candidates who made Credit and above in Mathematics is 1,094,291 representing 90%.
Number of candidates who made five (5) Credits and above including English Language and Mathematics is 878,925 representing 71.64%. When compared to 2020 SSCE (Internal) figures of 894,101 (73.89%) there is a decrease of 2.25%.
“Number of candidates who made five (5) Credits and above irrespective of English Language and Mathematics is 1,226,796 representing 94.04%. When compared to 2020 SSCE (Internal) figures of 1,112,041 (91.91%) there is an increase of 2.13%.
Number of candidates involved in various forms of malpractice in 2021 is 20,003 representing 1.63% Whereas 33,470 representing 2.61% cases were recorded in 2020,” said Wushishi.
He explained that the Council has a long-standing tradition for zero tolerance for malpractice, saying that it could be noticed that the malpractice incidence in 2021 dropped compared to the figure of 2020.
The NECO boss attributed the drop in examination malpractice to some key practices of the Council such as: The deployment of biometric verification devices;
Strengthening the examination monitoring strategy in terms of scope and depth.
Explaining further, he said, “The constituency of external monitors was expanded followed by training in the use of well prepared monitoring manuals.
Consequent upon the foregoing, five schools one each in Bauchi, Kaduna and Bayelsa and two in Katsina state were recommended for derecognition for two years due to their involvement in mass cheating/whole school cases.
Also, twenty supervisors were blacklisted for various offences ranging from poor supervision, aiding and abetting, connivance with non candidates to write answers on chalkboards, compromise and extortion.”
He therefore urged candidates to access their results on NECO website: www.neco.gov.ng using their examination registration number.