- Says 73% Of Candidates Made Five Credits In Exam
By Abiola Olawale
The National Examination Council (NECO), on Wednesday announced the release of the 2020 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE).
The announcement of the results was made by the NECO Registrar, Godswill Obioma in Minna, Niger.
Obioma said a total of 1,221,447 candidates registered for the examination, out of which 665,830 are male while the remaining 555,617 are female.
According to him, “Number of candidates who made credit and above in English language is 973,331, representing 82.68 per cent. Number of candidates who made credit and above in Mathematics is 1,060,100, representing 90.08 per cent.
“Number of candidates who made five credits and above including English and Mathematics is 984,101 representing 73.89 per cent; compared to 2019 June/July SSCE figures of 829,787, there is an increase of 2.3 per cent. Number of candidates who made five credits and above irrespective of English Language is 1,112,041, representing 91.91 per cent; compared to 2019 June/July SSCE figures of 1,04,989 there is an increase of 2.01 per cent.”
Obioma added that the 2020 examinations marked a defining moment for the council, given the challenging circumstances in which they were conducted last year.
“We are indeed grateful to the Almighty God for making this occasion possible. Pursuant to the mandates of Council in conducting credible examinations aimed at improving the overall quality of education in the country, the various stages in the conduct of our examination from the pre-examination to post-examination stages have continually undergone improvement. It is gratifying to note that these processes have been concluded for the 2020 SSCE culminating to the release of the results.” He said.
Providing details on the candidates who missed some papers due to the #EndSARS, the Registrar said a new date has been fixed by the examination board.
He said the #EndSARS protests which erupted across some states in the country truncated the process of the examinations.
“The affected candidates will now sit for those papers missed during the forthcoming 2020 SSCE(External) scheduled from Monday 1st February, 2021 to Wednesday 3rd March, 2021. These special arrangements will be at no extra cost to these candidates.” The NECO Registrar said.
Speaking on the malpractice experienced during the course of examination, he said 12 schools across the country were recommended for de-recognition for two years over their involvement in mass cheating.
“Numbers of candidates involved in various forms of malpractice in 2020 is 33,470, representing 2.61 per cent, and 40,630, representing 3.53 per cent of such cases were recorded in 2019. Twelve schools- four in Adamawa, two in Kaduna, two in Katsina and one in Taraba and FCT each were recommended for de-recognition for two years for their involvement in mass cheating. While 24 supervisors were blacklisted for various offences ranging from poor supervision, aiding abetting and connivance with non-candidates to write answers on chalkboard.” Obioma stated.
It would be recalled that NECO was founded in April 1999 by the regime of the then Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar.
NECO is an examination body in Nigeria that conducts the SSCE and the General Certificate in Education (GCE).
