No fewer than 70,608 candidates yesterday sat for this year’s National Common Entrance Examination ((NCEE) conducted by the National Examinations Council (NECO) for admission into Federal Government Colleges.
This year’s figure is slightly below the over 72,000 candidates who sat for the 2023 NCEE.
Speaking while monitoring of the examination in Abuja, the permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs. Didi Walson-Jack, commended NECO for the smooth examinations.
“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,” he said.
NECO registrar, Prof. Ibrahim Wushishi who attributed the slight decline 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 males who registered and 37,000 plus females, we have a total of 70,608 that are so far registered which is below last year.
“Last year was 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 sponsors the candidate,” he said.
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