By Tina George, Minna
The National Examinations Council, NECO, has revealed that 33,470 candidates that sat for the 2020 Senior School Certificate Examination, SSCE, were involved in various forms of malpractices.
The Registrar of the Council, Professor Godswill Obioma, who announced the results at the NECO headquarters in Minna on Wednesday, also said that 12 schools in six states have been derecognised for their involvement in examination malpractice, while 24 supervisors were blacklisted for various offences.
According to him, the offences of the supervisors ranges from poor supervision, aiding and abetting and connivance with non-candidates to write answers on chalkboard.
The schools blacklisted for two years include four in Adamawa, two in Kastina, two in Niger, one each in Taraba and Federal Capital Territory, FCT, adding that the malpractice by the candidates represents 2.61 per cent, which is a drop to the 3.53 per cent of malpractice cases recorded in 2019.
The Registrar attributed the drop in malpractice cases to the deployment of biometric verification devices and strengthening of the examination monitoring strategy, adding that the external monitoring mechanism was expanded in scope and depth.
Giving a breakdown of the 2020 SSCE internal result, Obioma said that there was a remarkable two per cent increase of candidates who made five credits and above in all subjects.
He said that while 1,209,992 of 1,221,447 sat for the examinations across the country, 973,331 representing 82.68 per cent made credit and above in the English Language and 1,060,100 representing 90.08 per cent made credit and above in Mathematics.
“Number of candidates who made five credits and above, including English Language and Mathematics is 894,101 representing 73.89 per cent, when compared to 2019 June/July SSCE figures of 829,787, there was an increase of 2.3 per cent.
“Number of candidates who made five credits and above irrespective of English Language and Mathematics is 1,112,041 representing 91.91 per cent, when compared to 2019 June/July SSCE figures of 1,042,989, there is an increase of 2.01 per cent”, he stated.
