FG: 169 Candidates Sit for National Common Entrance Exams in IDPs

Paul Obi in Abuja

The federal government yesterday said about 169 candidates at the Internally Displayed Persons’ (IDPs) camps sat for the National Common Entrance Examination conducted by the National Examination Council (NECO).

Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, said the 169 candidates wrote exams in the North-east where Boko Haram insurgency has been intense. The 2016 examination is for entrance into unity schools and colleges across the country.

Anwukah stated this while monitoring the conduct of NCEE yesterday in Abuja. He said the number of students writing NCEE in the North-east had increased as insurgency has eased off.
He explained that “total number of registered students for 2016 NCCE was 90,786 with Lagos State having highest number with 25,963 candidates while Zamfara had the least with 103 candidates.

“Adamawa State has 313 regular students; those in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps – 34, total for Adamawa – 347. Borno State has 187 regular students; those in IDPs -120, total for Borno – 307; Yobe State has 387 regular students; those in IDPs – 15, total for Yobe – 402.
“Last year, Lagos had the highest registration with 25,437; the lowest last year was Borno understandably with 35; the total for last year was 86,365. As the insurgency problem is easing off, more of our students are registering for NCCE and affording themselves the opportunity to enter Federal Government Colleges,” he said.

Anwukah observed that there was a remarkable increase in the number of students from Borno and Yobe States in 2016 examination. He stated that in 2015, “Borno had 35 candidates as against 387 in 2016 while Yobe had 68 in 2015 as against 402 in 2016.”

The minister explained that available spaces for the candidates across the 104 unity schools in the country were 26,000. He contended that improving the quality of teachers was of paramount concern to the Federal Ministry of Education as it worked toward producing the best qualified teachers for the students.

NECO’s Registrar, Prof. Abdulrasheed Garba, told journalists that adequate security measures had been put in place in states having security challenges.

“The results are expected to be released by NECO to the Federal Ministry of Education on April 20 after which the ministry will direct NECO to make it public. Candidates are to check the status of their qualification for the interview test both at the various unity colleges and on-line via NECO website www.mynecoexams.com as soon as the release of results in announced.

“Candidates that quality after writing this examination will be invited for final selection interview coming up on a date to be announced after the release of these results,” he said.
Garba stated that Computer Based Test (CBT) was the latest innovation in examinations across the world, stressing that the council would migrate to CBT when adequate facilities were put in place to implement the policy.