Chidimma UCHEGBU
The National Examinations Council, NECO, has unveiled e-posting software to facilitate seamless posting of staff to various parts of the country during its scheduled examinations.
Registrar of NECO, Prof Dantani Wushishi, who unveiled the software shortly after releasing the November/ December 2023 External Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, SSCE, in Minna on Monday, said the e-Posting Software is designed to address the myriad of problems associated with posting of NECO staff for out-of-station assignments.
Wushishi noted that prior to the introduction of the annual staff posting Calendar, the posting exercise was greeted with a lot of complaints arising from lopsidedness, and favoritism which gave rise to serious agitations.
“What we are doing today is taking it a step further by digitalizing the process and making it seamless, thereby addressing some of those concerns associated with the manual process.
“With this new development, every staff will be notified at the beginning of the year about the type and number of assignments they are eligible for, as well as the Place of assignment.
“SMS notification will be sent to all staff after the launching to confirm their 2024 posting status. This will later be broadened to include e-mail messages,” he said.
The NECO boss maintained that the innovation will no doubt, address all the issues associated with the manual posting, as well as afford the staff enough time to prepare.
While announcing the May/June 2023 External Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, SSCE, he noted that 74,950 registered for the exam out of which 74,342 sat for the exercise.
Giving a breakdown of candidates’ performance, the NECO boss said 50,066 representing 67.35percent secured five Credits and above, including English Language and Mathematics.
His words: “The number of candidates that registered for the examination is 74,950 with 39,213 (52.31%) male and 35,737 (47.68%) female.
The number of candidates that sat is 74,342 with 38,867 (52.28%) male and 35,475 (47.71%) female.
The number of candidates that sat for English Language is 73,124 out of which 55,272, representing 75.59% got Credit and above.
The number of candidates that sat for Mathematics is 73,119, out of which 67,815, representing 92.75% got credit and above.
The number of Candidates who got five (5) Credits and above, including English Language and Mathematics is 50,066 representing 67.35%.
Also 62,530 candidates, representing 84.11% got five (5) Credits and above irrespective of English Language and Mathematics.”
Speaking further, Professor Wushishi, who said the level of malpractices recorded reduced drastically when compared to 2022 examination, however, said two supervisors were blacklisted for various infractions.
His words:” The number of candidates booked for various forms of malpractice is 8,518, as against 11,419 in 2022, which shows a decline in the number of malpractice cases by 25.4%.
“The examination malpractice cases for 2023 SSCE External included two centres, one each in Kaduna and Ogun States involved in whole centre cases.
“Two supervisors, one each in Oyo and Lagos States were blacklisted for poor supervision, inability to control the candidates, and for aiding and abetting. One centre in Borno State was blacklisted for aiding and abetting by sharing whatsapp messages to candidates.”
The NECO boss called on candidates to access their results by visiting the NECO official website www.neco.gov.ng, using their examination registration number.
