Chidimma UCHEGBU
The National Examination Council (NECO) has said it received 490 requests from 50 countries to authenticate its results.
NECO Registrar, Prof. Ibrahim Wushishi, disclosed this at a one-day retreat on the State of Education in Nigeria organised by the Education Correspondent Association of Nigeria (ECAN) in Abuja on Tuesday.
Speaking on the global acceptability of NECO certificates, Prof. Wushishi said NECO certificates have global recognition through the educational assessment body.
“NECO is a strong member of the International Association for Educational Assessment and we play a vital role in the global assessment of examination.
“So candidates that took their NECO examinations are being admitted into secondary and tertiary institutions in countries like the United States of America, Canada, Germany, India, China, Italy, Russia, Ukraine and Sweden and they write the council to authenticate the results from NECO.
“In fact, between January and August 2022, we received 490 requests from more than 50 countries across the world to confirm the authenticity of our results,” he said.
Wushishi, however, advised Nigerians not to take the education sector for granted, saying that the sector should be projected in a good light to the world.
Speaking at the retreat, the Registrar, the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, urged Nigerians to stop portraying the education section in a bad light on the global scene.
According to him, Nigerians should always emphasise the positive values of the sector.
Ajiboye was speaking at a one-day retreat on the State of Education in Nigeria organised by the Education Correspondent Association of Nigeria (ECAN) in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said that in spite of the challenges the education sector faced with the quality of graduates produced could compete favourably all over the world.
“Nigeria’s education is among the best all over the world as our graduates are sort after globally.
“Nigeria’s education is among one of the best in the world as of today, if not, why are Nigerian professionals going outside the country?
“You see thousands of Nigerians everywhere you go; Nigerian graduates are well sought out for.
“Even as of today, if you look at the quality of our graduates, they are people that can compete with other people all over the world. People will always tell you the standard is falling but who is setting the standards?
“Even this year alone, I have signed letters of professional standing for over 260 Nigerians going to teach in Canada alone and as of this morning; we have a letter from the UK from the head of their teaching council.
“She sends a message for a letter of professional standing because they want to start taking Nigerian teachers massively.
“If anybody is telling you are not doing well, though we have our challenges in all these situations, we still have the best graduates,” he said.
Ajiboye called on the media to help the country in amplifying the positive values of the sector so that foreign countries would be able to come in, explore and invest.
He, therefore, emphasised the need to change the narrative by not dwelling on the negatives capable of overwhelming the country.
Meanwhile, the Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, commended the association on their roles in projecting the image of the country, especially in the education sector.
Oloyede, who was represented by the Head, of Public Affairs and Protocol, JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin called for the introduction of a National Education Insurance Scheme to address the problem of access, especially in state universities.
“The Federal Government put in place state institutions to address the need of admission access because one of the major problems is spaces in our institutions and most candidates cannot afford these institutions.
“The country should be able to support the education scheme whereby a certain percentage can be paid by the Federal Government so that subscribers can attend private institutions,” he said.
On the issue of lowering cut-off marks, he said that the cut-off mark was a minimum benchmark that institutions must not go below which did not affect education standards.
