The National Examinations Council (NECO) says the presentation of falsified documents by Principals and Proprietors of schools in order to secure accreditation is a challenge confronting it.
Acting Registrar of NECO, Abubakar Gana, stated this in a brief submitted to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, on the mandate and achievements of the Council between May 2018 and September 2019.
Gana also noted that the menace of examination malpractice had continued to hunt public examinations across the country, with NECO recording over 40,000 cases in its June/July 2019 Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, SSCE.
He said incessant cases of examination malpractice especially impersonation and particularly collusion by supervisors, teachers and school administrators, who ought to be part of the army in fighting the scourge, was a major challenge in the conduct of the exercise.
He therefore urged the Federal Government to formulate a deliberate policy aimed at promoting discipline and a culture of honesty among teachers, school administrators and students.
The registrar further called on the government to prioritise the security of examinations just as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is provided security during elections.
Although NECO acquired 8,000 biometric verification machines before its conduct of the 2019 SSCE, the Registrar said the exam body required more biometric verification devices to serve its over 16,000 centres and enable it to strengthen its efforts towards eliminating identity theft, which is the severest form of examination malpractice.
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Speaking on council’s achievements, the NECO boss said immediately after his assumption of office, he embarked on critical reforms, which had led to the successful conduct of the 2018 June/July SSCE under compelling circumstances and released the results of the examination within forty days of completion.
He further stated that the Council abolished the use of scratch cards following the scam that surrounded it, which led to the loss of hundreds of millions in revenue, adding that it subjected all printed 2018November/December registration cards to activation only after the money for each card must have been credited to the Council’s TSA.
He further disclosed that NECO had successfully developed and integrated the 2019November/December SSCE registration software on its new website and regular registration for the examination has effectively taken off on 19th August 2019 and is scheduled to end on 28th October, 2019at 12.00 midnight.
Gana said due to successful blockage of financial leakages and increased prudence in the management of the Council’s resources, the management successfully implemented 100 percent duty tour allowance for staff, leading to the attainment of unprecedented industrial peace and good working relationship with all trade unions.
He said the Council has successfully developed on the new website, the offline & online registration software that was used in the 2019 BECE and June/July SSCE registrations and deployed full-scale biometric data capture during the registration process.
He added that the Council successfully implemented the Federal Government’s downward review of NECO Examination Fees regime as follows: NCEE (N2,500.00), BECE (N4,000.00) and SSCE (N9,850.00).
He however, decried the lack of reading and adherence to guidelines governing the Council’s operations, which according to him is causing a serious impediment to the successful implementation of the on-going reforms and the deliberate failure of school administrators to comply with laid down rules and regulations.
