The National Examinations Council (NECO) has donated learning materials to indigent pupils of Day Secondary School, Gbada, Gidan Mangoro, and two boreholes to supplement water needs of its host communities, Gidan Mangoro and Gbaganako in Chanchaga Local Government Area of Niger State.
Under the initiative, five SS3 pupils from the school who topped a selection test conducted by the council were identified for sponsorship for the NECO 2016 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE). Three SS2 students were also presented with textbooks, notebooks and mathematical sets; while three other indigent JSS1-JSS3 pupils received textbooks, notebooks, school uniforms, shoes, socks, school bag and under-shirt each for the next academic session.
The Registrar/CEO of NECO, Prof Abdulrashid Garba, said while handing over the items that the initiative was to fulfil NECO’s Corporate Social Responsibility to the host communities and maintain cordial relationship between them.
“Corporate organisations cannot exist in isolation from their immediate host community. This is an opportunity to say thank you to the communities as they have been allowing us to stay here without any problem or crisis,” he said.
Garba noted that the SS3 pupils who had earlier paid the N11,550 fee for the examination were refunded their money;
Reacting to the gesture, the Niger state governor, Alhaji Abubakar Bello praised NECO for touching lives.
“You have touched the lives of the community by drilling these boreholes. Water is next to life, without water, nothing can take place in the home,” said Bello who was represented by the commissioner for Education, Hajiya Fatima Madugu.
Bello promised to reposition the education sector in the state and renovate the existing schools to UNESCO standard.
Tag: NECO
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NECO sponsors five candidates
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NCEE: NECO registers over 25,000 candidates in Lagos
A total of 25,781 candidates registered for this year’s National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE) in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the examination was for admission into the 104 Unity Colleges across the country.
The Lagos State Zonal Coordinator, National Examinations Council (NECO), Mr Gbenga Olapade, organisers of the examination, told NAN in an interview on Saturday that a total of 115 centres were being used for the examination across the state.
Olapade said that there were additional four centres for this year’s examination, when compared with 111 centres used for the same examination in 2015.
According to him, from the additional centres, simple logic showed that more candidates registered for the examination in 2016.
Olapade said that it was expected that even with the large number of candidates, not all were being expected to sit for the examination as a result of one factor or the other.
“You cannot get 100 per cent attendance in any examination but I am impressed with the number of candidates that believed in and registered for this examination this year.
“It goes to show that there is a measure of standard in the colleges and Nigerians are beginning to reckon by the day with Federal Government Colleges,’’ he told NAN.
He attributed the steady progression of number of candidates for the examination in the country to the sound and qualitative education and other investments government put in place for the colleges across the country.
According to him, logistics to ensure a smooth conduct of the examination in the state had been deployed and all the supervisors were well briefed.
He said that with over two decades in the conduct of the examination, the council had ensured a zero tolerance to malpractices at all levels.
Olapade said that the council would not hesitate to deal decisively with any supervisor or staff found colluding with anyone to compromise the examination at any given point in time.
“The National Common Entrance Examination has been in place for well over two decades now.
“We conducted the first examination in 1993 when the board was still known as National Board for Educational Measurement which later metamorphosed into
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Neco embraces Fed Govt’s policy on stamp duty
The National Examinations Council (NECO) has embraced the Federal Government’s policy on stamp duty in all its transactions, the Registrar/Chief Executive, Prof Abdulrashid Garba, has said.
Addressing the new zonal coordinators and state officers during a two-day meeting, the Registrar directed all staff to comply with the stamp duty policy as well as the Treasury Single Account (TSA) in their zones and states.
Garba said the implementation of these policies of the government was not only key to the change mantra of the administration, but is also relevant to the realisation of its goals.
He stressed that the TSA is intended to “ensure accountability of government revenue, enhance transparency and avoid misapplication of funds”, while the stamp duty is intended to ‘legitimise all transactions entered into by the Council.’
The Registrar also announced the release of utility vehicles to the eight zonal coordinators for the conduct of examination.
He assured the state officers that the management would provide them with conducive working environment within available resources.
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NECO Gets New Zonal Offices and Division
The Management of the National Examinations Council has approved the restructuring of the organization to reposition it for better service delivery and productivity as eight zonal offices and divisions have been created.
The zonal offices are situated in Ibadan, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Makurdi, Bauchi, Kano, FCT and Lagos.
According to a press release by the Head of information, Azeez Sani made available to newsmen in Minna, three new divisions have been created in the Department of Examination Development, they are SSCE (external), Trade/Entrepreneurial Subjects and Evaluation and Item Banking while in the Department of Quality Assurance, the new divisions created are Psychometrics, Examination Malpractice and Investigation, and Policy Matters (external).
The three new divisions in the Department of Human Resource Management are Maintenance, Sanitation and Staff Records/Nominal Roll, while Validation and 3rd Year Continuous Assessment, and Operations are the two new divisions created in the Department of Examination Administration.
The release disclosed that the restructuring has led to the appointment of eight new zonal coordinators, 37 new state officers, including an FCT Liaison officer and 45 Divisional Heads.
The zonal coordinators appointed are, Dr. Abdullahi Williams (North West – Kano), Mr. Usman Abubakar (North Central – Makurdi), Mr. John Tumba (North East – Bauchi), Dr. Kola Raheem (South West – Ibadan), Mrs. Mariana Ukaegbu (South East – Enugu), Mr. Lucky Ohwonigbo (South South – Port Harcourt), Mr. Mustapha Abdul (FCT), Mr. Michael Olapade (Lagos).
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NECO releases Nov/Dec 2015 results
The National Examinations Council (NECO), has released the results of the November/December 2015 Senior School Certificate Examinations.
Prof. Abdulrashid Garba, NECO’s Registrar and Chief Executive, disclosed this on Wednesday in Minna while addressing newsmen.
He said that a total of 50,060 candidates registered, out of which 47,507 sat for English Language while 47,554 sat for Mathematics.
Garba said that out of the number that sat for English,29,718 representing 62.55 per cent obtained credit pass while 32, 484 that sat for Mathematics representing 68.30% passed at credit level.
He said that of the 39,389 candidates that sat for Biology, 17,227 or 43.73 per cent obtained credit pass.
For Chemistry, out of 22,284 candidates that sat for the examination, 11,951 representing 53.63 per cent made it at credit level.
The registrar added that out of 22,201 candidates who sat for Physics, 818 or 3.68 per cent passed the subject at credit level, while in Geography, 19, 781 candidates sat for the examination, and 3,851 or 19.46 per cent passed at credit level.
Garba pointed out that performance of candidates in Government indicates that out of 23,497 candidates that wrote the subject, 10,226 or 43.52 per cent made it at credit level.
He said that in Economics, 39,406 candidates sat for the examination and 23,991 or 60.88 per cent passed the subject at credit level.
“In view of the fact that the examination was for private candidates who were no longer in the school system and looking for one or two credits, the desperation to engage in malpractice was high.
“This led to an increase in the percentage of candidates involved in malpractice, compared to the figure for 2014,” he said.
Garba said that the NECO was devising more ways to reduce malpractice in the examinations in order to counter the various illegal strategies adopted by candidates.
He said that malpractice was on the increase, adding that a comparative study showed an increase between 2014 and 2015 in most subjects.
“A comparative analysis of malpractice cases by subject revealed that while 635 cases were recorded in English Language in 2014, 1,075 cases were recorded in 2015.
“Also, in Mathematics, 634 cases of malpractice were recorded in 2014 while 1,799 cases were recorded in 2015.
“In Economics, 570 cases of malpractice were recorded in 2014, while 880 were recorded in 2015. In Government, 363 cases were recorded in 2014 while 564 were recorded in 2015,” he said.
Garba advised candidates to access their results on NECO website www.mynecoexam.com, using their Examination Registration Number and scratch cards.
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Promasidor partners NECO to expand COWBELLPEDIA reach
With the National Examinations Council (NECO) coming on board to endorse and conduct the first stage of the Cowbellpedia Secondary School Mathematics TV Quiz show, Promasidor Nigeria Limited is expecting to reach more participants this year.
Festus Tettey, Head of Marketing at Promasidor said at a briefing on Tuesday that the qualifying examination for this year’s competition holding on March 19, 2016 will be conducted by NECO because of its experience in conducting public examination, such as the Senior School Certificate Examination twice yearly.
He also expressed confidence that the integrity the competition has sponsored for 18 years will not be compromised under NECO in response to concerns about examination leakages.
“We have talked about leakages with NECO and they have assured us it won’t happen. Working with NECO is to extend our reach. We have been a little short in reaching all parts of the country,” he said.
The competition is open to pupils aged 10 – 18 years in JSS3 and SS2 in both public and private secondary schools in Nigeria. Tettey said each school can now present five candidates for each category (junior and senior secondary). However, he said two in each set must be girls to stimulate the love for the subject among girls.
The firm has also developed an online registration portal (www.cowbellpedia.ng) for the competition as against the manual registration used in the past.
After the first stage examination, 54 pupils in each category (the best 20 nationwide, and the best in each state) will feature in the Cowbellpedia Television Show.
Managing Director, Promasidor, Mr. Olivier Thiry, said the company has increased the prize money for the top three winners in both categories and their teachers this year. The first in both categories will now get N1 million – up from N750,000; the second place, N750,000, and the third, N500,000. The top three teachers will get between N400,000 and N200,000.
“All these improvements are to underscore Promasidor’s efforts to provide a credible platform that discovers, recognizes and rewards excellence in Mathematics, a critical component of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in Nigeria,” he said.
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Special audit for WAEC, NECO, others
The Federal Government has ordered a “special sudit” of the books of some government funded agencies to get a clearer picture of their expenses.
The Nation gathered that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the special audit of the agencies when some irregularities were discovered in their books.
According to a source, who declined to be named because he is not permitted to talk to the media, the government wants to “look into the expenses, printing costs (considered very high), revenue sharing contracts and other suspected irregularities of these government funded bodies”.
The special audit is part of the government’s “efforts to focus on non oil revenues generated through its board and agencies, which are not accounted for and, therefore, resulting leakages.
For the special audit is the West African Examination Council (WAEC). In 2014, WAEC’s salary/overhead capital from the Federal Government of Nigeria totalled N4.8 billion representing 100 per cent funding by the Federal Government.
The examination body’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from fees made from public sale of forms and other examination materials was put at N16.6 billion from the 2014 accounts.
What triggered the government’s interest in the financial activities of WAEC was that “all its IGR was spent on examination costs with very high charges for printing, travelling etc, resulting in lots of waste”.
“just N25 million was paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF),” the source said.
Also for special audit is the National Examinations Council (NECO), which in 2014 received N4.9 billion, representing 100 percent funding of its activities. The same year, NECO was said to have generated N11.7 billion, but “the same story all over again, with almost all the money spent and just N6.9 million remitted the to CRF”.
Auditors have been assigned to these examination bodies to examine their transactions, with a view to making them remit more to the CRF and to boost the government’s revenue base outside crude oil sales.
Late last week, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, issued a circular on guidelines regarding budgeting, revenue and expenditure aimed at ensuring that Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) remit revenue and generate operating surpluses which, by law, ought to be credited to Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).
The circular is aimed at compelling Boards and Agencies which operate outside budgetary control to comply with Section 22(2) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), which lists agencies , such as Nigeria Port Authority (NPA), NIMASSA, NAFDAC, JAMB, NTA, NCC, CAC, NECO, to remit 80 percent of their operating surplus into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The Minister of Finance had lamented that “records show very poor compliance with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Some agencies have never credited the Consolidated Revenue Fund despite having salary, capital and overhead financed by the Federal Government. Indeed, cost to income rates of 99.8 percent have been the average, meaning that they spend all their internally generated revenue and subventions released to them.”
The Minister said such practices are not sustainable in any economic climate and with the current serious economic challenges being faced by Nigeria, “this can no longer be tolerated. Accordingly, all revenue generating agencies must comply with the circular and cut their costs.”
In the circular sent to MDAs, the Minister said “revenues generated by all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) must be reported on a gross basis prior to any deductions. Also, all self-funded Federal Agencies are to limit their annual expenditures from their internally generated revenues to not more than 75 percent of their total gross revenue while fully funded agencies are to remit all their internally generated revenue (IGR) to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).”
The Circular added that “henceforth, 80 percent of the resulting operating surplus by MDAs should be remitted into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) on a quarterly basis, in accordance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act.”
To ensure sustained and regular monitoring of the financial activities of MDAs, the circular required “all MDAs funded through the annual budget must submit monthly Expenditure Transcripts and Revenue Returns, to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), while agencies not funded through the annual Federal Government budget are to prepare and submit Quarterly Management Accounts including Revenue Returns to the OAGF.”
The Minister warned all MDAs “that in line with Financial Regulations (FR) 107, the Accountant-General of the Federation will carry out routine revenue monitoring and inspection visits to the MDAs to verify compliance with the new guidelines. The circular said any Accounting Officer/Chief Executive Officer of MDAs that defaults in remitting revenues as appropriate and as when due shall be sanctioned accordingly and the renewal of the tenure of appointment of Accounting Officers/Chief Executive Officers shall be tied to their compliance with the content the new guidelines.”
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NECO records 68% five credits pass
The National Examinations Council (NECO) has released its June/July 2015 results with 511, 931 or 68.56 per cent of the students recording five credit pass and above in all subjects including English Language and Mathematics.
Announcing the release of results yesterday at the Council National headquarters in Minna, the Registrar and Chief Executive of NECO, Prof Abdulrashid Garba said the result shows 12 per cent improvement to the results of the 2014 result released by the council and a remarkable improvement to the results in the last four years.
According to him, 969, 991 candidates registered for the examination out of which 969, 491 sat for the examinations in centers across the country.
Giving a breakdown of the results, the NECO Registrar said 83.28 per cent credit pass in English Language and 80.74 per cent credit pass in Mathematics.
The Registrar lamented that despite the adequate vigilance and monitoring by his organisation, NECO still recorded substantial malpractices which led to leading to cancellation of
43,608 culprits results and black listing of culpable adhoc staff.
Garba said 13 states were partially indebted to NECO, with commitment to pay and the Council released the results of those states adding that some private schools also owe the organisation but all results were released except those involved in malpractices.
In the analysis of candidates performance by states, Delta State? scored the highest in five credits and above including English and Mathematics with 83.51 percent, and Edo state follows suit with 83.42 percent.
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NECO releases 2015 exam results
The National Examination Council (NECO) has released the June/July 2015 results with improvement of 16 per cent in credits in English and Mathematics.
The NECO Registrar, Prof. Abdulrashid Garba, who announced the results on Thursday in Minna, said that 68.56 per cent of candidates got more than five credits this year.
He said that the 2015 result was an improvement from 2014 when 52.29 got above five credits.
Garba said that 969,491 sat for the examination out of the 969,991 candidates that registered.
He said that 0.11 per cent cases of malpractice were recorded, adding that the results of candidates involved have been cancelled.
[ad id=”403656″]The registrar said that the council was able to sustain its timely release of results in less than 60 days from the date the last paper was written.
“The 2015 examinations result was released within 60 days after the final paper. This shows a great success achieved by the council.
“Lists of schools which were involved in examination malpractice have been blacklisted and the results of students who wrote in such centres have been cancelled,” he said.
Garba called on candidates who sat for the examination to access their results on NECO Web.
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Open letter to NECO Registrar
While I am not among those in support of the scrapping of the National Examination Council (NECO), it really becomes imperative to chip in a word or two on certain wrongs being made by the examination body, especially on wrong names of candidates that sat for the NECO examinations.
A lot of candidates that sat for NECO had tales of woes to tell based on giving them wrong names in the examinations conducted by the body. I was a victim because my name was wrongly written.
In 2007, I sat for the private November/ December examinations, having sat the previous year’s examination which I did not meet the requirement. On my registration, I used my full name: Usman Garba Santuraki. But on receipt of the time table for examination, I was confronted with a wrong name. Santuraki in my name was omitted and an abbreviation A was substituted with it. I confronted the officials at the Yola office, only for them to tell me that they are not in a position to effect any correction and that the best alternative for me was to travel to the head office in Minna and complain to the Registrar as he is the only person that could effect any correction.
I really find this incomprehensible and so absurd, that the office in Yola cannot officially forward my compliant at this age of global advancement to the head office.
A lot of candidates who sat for NECO examinations are in my shoes, but to their amazement, the usual answer to their problems is always the same.
It is therefore in this light, that I am using this medium to highlight my predicament and that of others who have similar problems, but cannot travel down to Minna.
- By Usman Santuraki,
Demsawo, Jimeta-Yola.