No fewer than 70,608 candidates on Saturday sat for this year’s National Common Entrance Examination ((NCEE) conducted by the National Examinations Council (NECO) to seek admission into Federal Government Colleges.
This year’s figure is slightly below the 72,000 candidates who sat for the exam in 2023.
Speaking during monitoring of the examination in Abuja, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs. Didi Walson-Jack, commended NECO for the smooth examinations so far.
“We’ve been monitoring the ongoing NECO examination in FCT Abuja. We actually have 55 centers here, but we’ve so far monitored about three centers. Generally, I would say that everything is going on smoothly.
“The candidates are sitting for the exams comfortably, there is cooling in the room and there has been no problems so far.
“We are happy with all that NECO has put in place to ensure a smooth and seamless exercise,” Walson-Jack said
Registrar of NECO, Prof. Ibrahim Wushishi who attributed the slight decline in the number of candidates to the economy which has thrown millions of Nigerians into poverty, noted that unlike examinations conducted for the higher classes sponsored by some politicians and states, parents usually foot the bills for registration of their children or wards at the NCEE level.
He however noted an increase in the number of female candidates compared to last year’s registration.
“We have 33,335 male who registered and 37,000 plus female, we have the total of 70,608 that are so far registered which is below last year.
“Last year, it was about 72,000 plus. So you find that generally for the male and female, last year’s registration was higher than this year’s registration .
“This could be attributed to so many factors, economic factors is most prevalent factor that maybe will hinder large registration.
“We all know what is happening in the economy, and it is affecting everybody. The bulk of the population is in the rural areas and in some states, they don’t sponsor candidate at this level. It’s the parents that sponsor the candidates.
“Sometimes politicians, sometimes traditional rulers, so you can see why economic factor is the most prevailing factor hindering this registration.”
The Registrar further noted that candidates who were unable to register for the examination before 6am on Saturday were unable to sit for the examination.
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