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Tag: NECO

  • What fate awaits UTME, NECO?

    What fate awaits UTME, NECO?

    Is it true? This has been the question on the lips of many since the news broke of the planned scrapping of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) by the Federal Government.

    The Stephen Oronsaye-led Presidential Committee on Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies recommended that 114 agencies, among them UTME and NECO, be abolished, merged or reverted to their parent ministries.

    According to the report, if UTME and NECO and others are scrapped, the government would save about N862 billion between 2012 and 2015 in operations cost.

    Media reports said after the abolition of UTME, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) would act as a clearing house for institutions which will conduct entrance examinations for candidates by ensuring standards and checking multiple admissions.

    Though the Minister of State for Education, Mr Nyesom Wike, has described the story as a rumour, saying there is no Whitepaper yet on the report, university administrators, parents, teachers, students, educationists and others are worried. They are anxious about the government implementing policies that could affect the education system.

    Many are divided on whether NECO, which conducts the National Common Entrance Examination and Basic Certificate Examination Junior Secondary School 3 (JSS3) for Federal Government Colleges and JAMB which coordinates the UTME should continue to function the way they do. While some say they should be scrapped, others recommend that their duties be modified to serve Nigerians better.

    When he chaired the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU), former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) Prof Is-haq Oloyede, advocated that universities be allowed to examine their students.

    He, however, argued that the UTME is still relevant. In a chat with The Nation on Tuesday, Oloyede said while universities should screen their intakes, UTME should serve as a first level screening to trim down the number of candidates.

    He said: “JAMB itself was created by the universities not by government and that was why the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin was the first chairman of the board of JAMB. Our position is not that there should be no qualifying national examination. Our position is the autonomy of the universities to screen their intakes. What we are saying is that there should be layers of screening. The national exam will first weed them out. If anyone does not pass the first examination, then he has no business with the second screening.”

    Oloyede faulted the non-release of the Oronsaye report, noting that if released, Nigerians would be able to advise the government better.

    “Unfortunately, if you don’t have facts about an issue you will just be commenting blindly. If that report was available on the internet, we would have known what the committee considered in reaching its conclusions and we would have been able to give informed comments which can help government reach more equitable decision,” he said.

    Rector of the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu Dr A.A. Lawal urged the government not to scrap the two examining bodies.

    The bodies, he says, play an important role of conducting standardised examinations.

    “We strongly believe that JAMB and NECO have roles to play in standardising examinations, that is why we would not subscribe to those bodies being scrapped,” he said.

    Allowing institutions to conduct their own entrance examinations has some merit, according to Prof Ayo Olukoju, Vice-Chancellor of Caleb University, Imota, Lagos. He said under such regime, candidates would have more choices of institutions as they could take entrance examinations of many schools and be admitted to as many. Also it would be an advantage if they had to miss one because they could make it up with others, which is not possible with the UTME which holds once in a year.

    “The plus side is that the students have a number of more choices. If they are not chosen here they can be chosen elsewhere. Nigerian universities were able to whether the storm in the 70s when they conducted entrance examinations.”

    On the down side, he said the cost of admissions would be much more, since the process would be lengthier.

    He said: “The first reaction is to say that since there is no white paper on the issue, there is nothing definite yet. If there is no UTME, students will start travelling all over the country which would multiply cost. Also the admissions process will be protracted unduly as we would have to wait for all the institutions to conduct their examinations.”

    The high cost of admissions is one of the 10 reasons Mr Ike Onyechere, founding chairman of Exam Ethics Marshals International, headquartered in Abuja, says JAMB should be scrapped. In a letter to the Federal Government entitled: “Still on the need to scrap JAMB”, Onyechere said candidates spend as high as N136,000 on forms, travel expenses, lobbying and other sundry matters.

    The letter reads: “Exam Ethics Marshals International estimates the cost of seeking admission into Nigeria’s tertiary institutions at N136,000 per candidate on the average. This includes the cost of UTME and post-UTME forms, cost of scratch cards, cost of travelling and hotel accommodations, etc, etc. The convoluted UTME admission process opens parents and students up to all sorts of extortion rackets: payment for sighting of scripts and results, payment for change of admission letters, change of course letters, late admission letters. Extortion rackets associated with post-UTME include payment of fees for: ‘admission processing’; ‘accreditation’; ‘result reconciliation’; ‘clearance’; ‘opening of departmental and faculty files’ etc. In fact the cost can be as high as N500,000 depending on the course and the institution of choice e.g medicine and law.”

    While it costs a candidate so much to seek admission in Nigeria, in neighbouring Ghana, where universities conduct their own entrance examinations, Onyechere said it costs only N12,000, which is 20 times less.

    The Vice-Chancellor, Crawford University, Igbesa, Ogun State, Prof Samson Adenola Ayanlaja, wonders why the controversy over the government’s plan. According to him, if the government which put up the parastatal decades ago now finds it irrelevant, then its action is justifiable.

    Ayanlaja recalled how JAMB came under fire in times past, saying: “Why did government propose its scrapping in the first place? It is because it was later found out that there is no correlation between students’ performances in UTME when placed side by side the post-UTME universities conducted to again ascertain students’ validity. So, if the panel set up by government which comprised responsible decision makers came to the conclusion that it (UTME) should be scrapped based on the information they had gathered, then I have no objection to that.”

    He said if UTME must be scrapped, tertiary institutions should be allowed to test-run the new measure to see how it works before anything is done.

    “Universities have been conducting post-UTME for some years now to reassess candidates’ validity and the results have been laudable. So, I don’t think the issue of whether they will abuse it (conducting qualifying exams) or not should not arise now. Let’s get to the bridge first before we cross it. If, in future, the process is abused, I believe all vice-chancellors will come together to make necessary amends.”

    Sixtus Charbel Esinulo, a student, whose sister is writing the Senior Secondary School Examination (SSCE), welcomed the idea of scrapping the UTME, saying it would enable students gain admission easily. He added that it will also make Nigeria meet international standards when it comes to admitting students into universities.

    “JAMB frustrates students too much. I pray that they keep to their word,” he said. There are other candidates who agree with him. Akomolafe Isaac, who is sitting for this month’s UTME, said it should be scrapped from the admission process because in the country of nations only Nigeria operates under a controlled admission board. He said scrapping UTME means there would be a decrease in special centres which makes students lazy.

    Another candidate, Endurance Adu, said he supports the scrapping of UTME because it does not help the admission process.

    “Some people have written JAMB so many times without success. Some of them become hopeless and even reject admission offers later in life because of their age. Some pass UTME and post-UTME but cannot get admitted without bribing the officials.” He said it would improve the rate of reading.

    A parent, Mr. Adewumi Bamigboye, believes that the UTME is a waste of money and time because of the post-UTME.

    His words: “UTME should be scrapped, I see it as a waste of money and time to parents and students. No matter the score of a student, the institution will still conduct its own entrance examination so what is the essence. I only pity the staff in UTME offices. UTME limit student’s ability to try many entrances into institution; once you pick an institution as your first choice and it fails that is the end for that year but this new introduction, applicants can try different institutions.”

    A teacher, Mr Oladunjoye Oluwagbemiga, said scrapping NECO and UTME will lead to other problems.

    “The two are established for a purpose. Can someone tell me their negative impact, though NECO needs to be re-organised. The two have created jobs for many, what will be the fate of the staff. If UTME is scrapped, the institutions will be too powerful, brilliant brains may not be given admission to favour the rich ones. UTME gives equal right to both the rich and the poor to be admitted,” he said.

    If at all anything should be scrapped, Dickson Aneke, coordinator, Apex Brilliant Academy, Isolo, said it should be the post-UTME, noting that the reasons given for scrapping of UTME are not genuine.

    “They said that the credibility of JAMB is under threat. If they leave the exam in the hands of the school, it will become too expensive. The post-UTME should be scrapped instead because they are not doing what it was created for,” he said.

    Another UTME candidate, Adekunle Michael, said if UTME is stopped, corruption will prevail. “Students wont need to read; they will just go to the school, bribe and get admitted,” he said.

    Like JAMB/UTME, NECO also has protagonists and antagonists. While some say it should continue to exist because it gives candidates a second chance if they fail the SSCE conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), others believe NECO should be scrapped because its certificate enjoys less patronage than that of WAEC.

    Bamigboye is for NECO’s retention because “it gives opportunity to students who did not perform well in WAEC to put in their best.”

    Prof Olukoju agrees, saying: “The rule of choice still applies. I support that NECO should be allowed to conduct examinations.

    Given that WAEC is a regional body, Prof Oloyede said NECO can serve Nigeria.

    Prof Oluwole Familoni of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) said while he is indifferent to the scrapping or not of NECO, the examining body should not continue to conduct the Basic Education examination since the certificate is not actually in demand.

    “At the JSS level, if you look at Lagos and some other states, they conduct the basic education examination. And then NECO does the same thing. What are they doing with the certificate? Nothing,” he said.

    Those calling for NECO’s scrapping do so because of concerns that the certificate is inferior to WAEC, though the examinations are the same.

    Samson Lucky, an SS3 pupil of Abesan Senior High School, Ipaja, a Lagos suburb, is one of those that think NECO is of no relevance.

    His words: “NECO should be scrapped, it is local unlike WAEC. We didn’t want to pay for the NECO form but we were forced to; it is not relevant, it is not recognised and it is unacceptable internationally. I want to study in Ghana after my SSCE so I can’t use NECO. WAEC is enough. If I’m allowed, I wouldn’t write NECO.”

    Regarding NECO, Onyechere questioned the veracity of the body’s statistics.

    He said: “In its 2000 and 2001 examinations, NECO announced a pass rate of 100 per cent. All candidates passed all the papers they entered in the two years. This was greeted with a national uproar because of the abnormality. In the June/July 2007 examinations, NECO announced that 987,395 candidates out of 1,015,561 that sat for the examinations passed. That is 97.2%. pass rate (Daily Trust, Friday, October 12, 2007). By November/December 2008, the pass rate declined to 27.74% (Daily Trust, March 24, 2009). In the June/July 2009 result, it further went down to 10.53% (The Punch Wednesday, October 7, 2009). And for November/December 2009, we came down to a pass rate of 1.80% (The Nation, March 17, 2010.) Note the steady decline in pass rates. From 100% in 2001 to 97.2% in June/July 2007 to 27.74% in Nov/Dec 2008 to 10.53% in June/July 2009 and then to 1.80% (almost zero) in Nov/Dec 2009. Is it possible for Nigeria to move from being a country of geniuses to being a country of complete idiots within a space of 10 years? Is cooking of pass statistics downwards NECO’s answer to rising public opinion that its examinations are “easier” and “cheaper” than that of WAEC?”

  • NECO? Wait a minute!

    NECO? Wait a minute!

    It came like a bolt from the blue. That is how best I could describe the news of the Federal Government’s apparent resolve to scrap some of its agencies, which made headlines last week. The government is believed to have made up its mind to scrap the agencies in line with the white paper submitted by a committee set up last year to study the recommendations of the Stephen Oronsaye-led Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies.

    In April 2011, the Oronsaye-led committee had recommended the abolition of 38 agencies, the merger of 52 and the reversion of 14 departments in the ministries, from which they were initially carved out. This move, the committee suggested, would save the nation more than N862 billion between 2012 and 2015. In addition, the committee said the recommendations were aimed at helping the government to effect a drastic reduction in the size of its bloated bureaucracy, eliminate duplication of functions and lower the cost of governance.

    Among the agencies which have now been placed under the government’s potential sledgehammer are the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), National Examination Council (NECO), Public Complaints Commission, National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) and Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, among others. Nigerians seem to be focusing more attention on the fate that awaits NECO and UTME.

    It is expected that with the scrapping of the UTME, individual universities in the country would henceforth conduct their own admission examinations and admit students. The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, will only set standards and ensure compliance as it will now act as a mere clearing house. In the same vein, the West African Examination Council (WAEC) is expected to take over the functions and vast infrastructure of NECO. This means that WAEC would now conduct two external examinations in a year with one holding in January while the second would be conducted in November of every year.

    Expectedly, the move to tamper with NECO and UTME has attracted controversy across the land. While some people have applauded the government for attempting to tinker with the two bodies, others have vehemently kicked against the move. For instance, while some say the scrapping of NECO will check duplication of examination by secondary school leavers, others maintained that allowing the examination body to exist side by side with WAEC has broken the monopoly hitherto enjoyed by WAEC as well as provide an alternative for students. Their argument is that while WAEC is a regional examination body, NECO is a wholly indigenous and national body that is well positioned to assess students in Nigeria. Nigeria picks 54% of the bill for running WAEC.

    Some people have also been quick to go into history. Their argument is that NECO was established in April 1999 when Nigerian students were suffering untold hardship in the hands of WAEC. The establishment, they argue, was in line with decisions reached at the 49th meeting of the National Council of Education. The establishment of the Council at that time, they noted, was in response to the outcry of Nigerian students over the problems they were encountering with the examinations being conducted by WAEC in the country, especially the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination and the General Certificate Examinations.

    With its massive infrastructure and permanent site located on the outskirts of Minna, the Niger State capital, NECO has recorded many successes. But like every other successful venture, the body also had its own teething problems at inception. It was initially confronted with several daunting challenges that sought to undermine its examinations. Most of these challenges have been surmounted. Unfortunately, in the last few years, Nigerian students have successively recorded woeful results, especially in English Language and Mathematics in both WAEC and NECO examinations.

    These results have attracted a lot of public reaction and discourse. Commentators seem to agree that the results reflect the current state of Nigeria’s educational system and that something urgent needs to be done. Public discourse has also been engendered at various seminars, workshops, and conferences on how to proffer solutions to the inadequacies that affect students, teachers, educational administrators and policy makers in the country.

    However, the problem of mass failure in school certificate examinations, though not limited to NECO, is believed to have arisen because due diligence may not have been carried out at the marking venue by the examiners marking the examination papers. There’s no doubt that the provision of a valid and reliable assessment of students’ performance is the only way to ensure that stakeholders in education could begin to see examinations as a means of restructuring and reviving the moribund educational system in the country. This will ensure the credibility of examinations taken by candidates in Nigeria, as well as engender global trust in results issued on them.

    The idea that one examination body is better or preferable in Nigeria has been there all along. But what I think should engage the attention of our policy makers is the increasing number of candidates who could not obtain the mandatory pass marks in both English and Mathematics – a prerequisite for admission into the university – in the last few years. Many of the candidates could not also secure the mandatory credit-level pass mark in five subjects needed for admission into tertiary institutions. This has created a big problem in the education sector.

    In my opinion, it is the standard of education that has fallen to unimaginable level and not the standard of the examination bodies. In that case, NECO cannot simply be scrapped because WAEC is there standing by. If at all the government has identified any problem with NECO, it should put necessary mechanisms in place to strengthen it rather than scrap it. Like the Yoruba say, “Ori bibe ko ni ogun ori fifo”, literally translated to: “Cutting off the head is not a cure for headache”.

    Besides, it is clear that with the infrastructure it has put in place in the country, NECO seems to be better positioned to conduct final examination for Nigerian candidates than WAEC. Now, how do you ask a Tilapia to attempt to swallow a whale? Absolutely impossible. With about 37 offices located in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, it is obvious that WAEC has no capacity to take over and manage the assets and or liability of NECO.

    Besides, about 5,000 people are said to be employed by the body. In a country where unemployment has soared to high heavens, how will government manage the high unemployment figure that may arise from scrapping NECO? This is because there is no way WAEC can immediately absorb even a quarter of that number. This will surely increase the number of unemployed Nigerians roaming the streets and who would likely be easy prey to criminal activities and criminality which the security agents are already suffused with.

    At any rate, rather than take hasty actions that will further compound the problems in the education sector, it is imperative to overhaul the country’s educational system through appropriate and dynamic learning skills for pupils and effective teaching methods for the teachers. We should properly monitor the students from the kindergarten through the primary school, the junior secondary school and the senior secondary school levels. This way, any fundamental error in their growth process could be quickly redressed.

    Above all, there is the need to make sure that we have qualified teachers to teach such compulsory subjects as English Language and Mathematics. The current situation where a whole school with SSS1 and SSS3 student population of about 1500 students may just have only one teacher tutoring students in the subjects does not augur well for good education standard. It all boils down to channeling adequate funds to education through provision of necessary infrastructure and teaching aids as well as constant training and retraining of the teachers.

    The government may tinker with NECO for the purpose of enhancing productivity and efficiency but certainly, there is no justifiable reason to scrap it. So let it be!

  • Good riddance to NECO?

    Good riddance to NECO?

    If feelers from Abuja last week are to be believed then the National Examination Council (NECO) the rival examination body to the West African Examination Council (WAEC) could be scrapped soon by the Federal Government paving the way for WAEC to reclaim it monopoly of Senior Secondary School Certificate examination in the country.

    The Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) being conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for students seeking admission into tertiary institutions in the country is also to be scrapped, leaving the institutions free to conduct their entrance examinations, but with JAMB serving as the clearing house.

    The decisions as contained in the white paper on the Steve Oransanye committee on the streamlining of government agencies, if eventually implemented would not only profoundly affect the face of secondary and higher education in Nigeria in the foreseeable future, but also the quality of the trained and educated workforce that would come out of our universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

    Prior to the setting up of NECO, WAEC was largely solely in charge of the organisation and conduct of secondary school final examination in English West Africa, leading to the award of the then West African School Certificate (WASC) ordinary and advance levels. It was also in charge of he General Certificate of Education (GCE) ordinary and advance levels for external students.

    But like all monopolies, WAEC became too powerful and sadly inefficient leading to wide spread criticism of its performance, one of which was alleged frustration of the higher education ambition of hundreds of thousand of students who sat for its examination and who either failed even after so many ‘retakes’ or had their results withheld permanently.

    Even those who passed with six credits or more at either one or two sittings waited for years before they got their certificates ( for the few lucky ones), while many others had no school certificate to show (apart from notification of result) even up till now, more than two/three decades after they sat for and passed WAEC. Meanwhile several fake results were in circulation bearing the logo and ‘signature’ of WAEC. Many had secured university/polytechnic/college of education admission or even employment using these fake results at the expense of the truly qualified ones and to the detriment of the system. These and many other problems posed to our educational system must have prompted the then Federal Government to consider setting up a truly Nigerian secondary school examination body to not only rival WAEC but also meet the yearnings of out teeming youths for access to higher education, but operating in accordance to international standard.

    But can we say in truth and fairness that NECO has been living up to expectation since it was formed? Regrettably,the answer is neither yes or no. And that sums up what is called NECO today.

    From the outset the body was inadvertently made to look inferior to WAEC in the minds of both parents and students, admission authorities at the various higher institutions of learning and even employers of labour. This could be attributed to the initial seeming alarming rate of success recorded by students in contrast to WAEC’s examination. And with confidence in NECO waning, even students were not attaching much value to NECO’s certificate and that has dodged the examination body up till now.

    But as another window of opportunity to students NECO can be said to have lived up to expectation and has in a way made WAEC to sit up and improve its service delivery to it customers. But should that be the only thing about NECO? Certainly not. Couldn’t something be done to improve it and make it live up to expectation instead of scrapping it? I think so.

    If one considers the problems and shortcomings of NECO since inception, one would be tempted to say scrap it, but then would a return to WAEC’s monopoly solve the problem it was created to solve? I don’t think so.

    Compelling or encouraging WAEC to increase the frequency of its examinations to create more windows of opportunity for student is good, but that is not enough to think there is no need for NECO again. I thought so initially, but considering the fact that WAEC is a West African body, who would Nigeria convince other countries in the project to also buy-in to this new thinking? How much of influence does Nigeria have in WAEC to think she can sway others in the examination body to refocus to suit our own needs? Would that not be better done with NECO?

    Instead of scrapping NECO, government should investigate why it is not performing as designed and device a way of improving it. Apart from the job losses that a scrapping or absorption by WAEC would cause, there is no guarantee that WAEC could be relied upon, after all it has failed us before. NECO could still be made to do the same thing we want WAEC to do and be compelled to even do it better. This will in turn also improve WAEC and ultimately to the advantage of the students and the betterment of our education system and delivery. The more examination bodies and window of opportunities for the students the better. After all, even in spite of WAEC and NECO, Nigerians still write Cambridge and other foreign secondary school certificate (O&A levels) examinations here at home for admissions into foreign universities. Let the choice be many, but government must set and maintain the standards comparable with what obtains elsewhere in the world where we have top rate education standard.

    This brings to mind the UTME which is also set for the axe. There is not much to say about that joint entrance examination other than its a failure. JAMB started very well with its exams but as the population of university admission seekers expanded the ability to cope dwindled such that instead of the body serving as a facilitator for the attainment/ fulfillment of the higher education yearnings of the students, it became more of an impediment. With fewer university places available to the hundreds of thousands of secondary school graduates every year, JAMB began compounding the problem with its arbitrary cut off and educationally disadvantaged states policy in which for instance a student with a lower score gains admission to the same university at the expense of somebody with a higher score just because the former comes from an ‘educationally disadvantaged’ state. How do you sustain merit and encourage hard work in this kind of a setting? And to compound JAMB’s problem, polytechnics and colleges of education entrance examinations were added, and that’s one of the reasons we found ourselves where we are today.

    As with most public examinations in Nigeria, the higher institutions have lost faith in JAMB and have gone ahead to conduct heir own post-JAMB screening exams to determine the suitability and capabilities of those who passed JAMB and offered admission by the body. Many who passed JAMB have been found to have failed the universities’ post-JAMB exams even where the questions were similar. So, the question is, how did they pass JAMB in the first place? Well, your guess is as good as mine.

    So, a return to the past when each university was conducting its own separate admission examination for prospective students will be a welcome development. It will not only engender competition, but also ensure that only the best from our secondary schools proceed to university, polytechnic or college of education. This will ultimately raise standard in our higher institutions and make their product to be once again competitive in the international arena. It is no longer secret that our graduates find it difficult to secure post graduate admission into foreign universities again due to the low regard the international community have for our university graduates. It wasn’t like this in the past. What a shame.

    I am not saying this is the main or only reason for this low recognition of our graduates and their certificates, the problems are numerous, but hey are not insurmountable, scrapping the UTME could be one of the solutions.

     

  • Mixed reactions trail ‘scrapping’ of NECO

    Parents and secondary school pupils yesterday expressed mixed feelings on the alleged scrapping of the National Examination Council (NECO).

    The Federal Government had resolved to scrap some of its agencies in line with recommendations of the Stephen Oronsaye-led Presidential Committee on Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies.

    Mr Akin Amugiri, a parent, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the plan to scrap NECO would hamper the smooth foundation already laid down in the education sector.

    “Instead of having the monopoly of West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), the coming of NECO has helped to bring about a new reign.

    “It helped to expand the space for candidates who wish to write examination at that level to have an alternative.

    “It has provided an alternative rather than just one single examination body and it has created that multiplicity, inclusion and hope to candidates who want to gain admission into university,’’ he said.

    Amugiri said the scrapping of NECO would be like returning to status quo, where people would wait for a long time before results would be released.

    According to him, I think the best way is to fashion out ways of making NECO work better than an outright scrapping.’’

    He noted that before the scrapping of NECO, other plans should be put in place to give hope to candidates at that level.

    He said: “WAEC as the name implies belongs to the entire West African region and Nigeria’s education system cannot be the same in every country.

    He said that Nigeria had not got its education sector right, adding that “until the country gets there, NECO should not be scrapped.

    “We still need organisations like NECO to help us reflect the peculiarity of our situation as a nation.’’

    Mrs Edith Okafor, however, said the scrapping of NECO was a good initiative.

    According to her, NECO is a duplication of WAEC efforts. I see WAEC as a wide sphere than NECO and more authentic.

    “Pupils seem to pass NECO more than WAEC which is an indication that it is not well regulated,’’ Okafor said.

    A pupil, Miss Adelewa Adeniyi, said the scrapping of NECO would affect the majority of pupils who relied on the organisation’s certificates.

    She said: “most pupils who fail the WAEC always rely on NECO as an alternative to move forward in their quest to acquire education.’’

    Another pupil, Miss Anthonia Okon, urged government to recede the decision to scrap NECO.

    She said the scrapping of NECO would frustrate youths who depend on the body.

    Mr Ezenwa Nwagwu, the Chairman of Save Education, a non-governmental organisation, said that government’s decision to scrap NECO was aimed at saving cost.

    Nwagwu, however, said the decision did not consider the plight of the millions of pupils who depend on the body to move forward.

    “Scrapping NECO is not necessary as it will allow WAEC to have a monopoly of examinations in West Africa, and Nigeria, in particular,’’ she said.

    Officials of the Minna, Niger State office of NECO are now living in fear following the government’s plan to axe the examination body.

    Majority of them were seen yesterday discussing in groups what may become of their fate should the Federal Government go ahead with its plan.

    The Registrar and the Chief Executive Officer of the Council, Prof Promise Okpala, could not be reached. Other officers declined comments.

    But a senior staff who spoke in confidence, said that they are yet to receive a copy of the report or formal directive from the Federal Government.

    ‘’As you can see, people reported for work today and we all attended to our schedules. It is true the report came to us as a surprise. We had to buy the newspapers to get the gists of the matter. We are sincerely disturbed, because in this country anything can happen.’’

    Another official, a woman wondered why the Federal Government will accept such recommendation by Oronsanye’s committee. ‘’Britain with lesser population has many examination bodies and here we are about to kill the only one we have. It will be sad if the Federal Government finaly approves the scrapping of NECO.

    ‘’Aside from the effect of the scrapping on the workforce across the country and the attendant result on the Nigerian Child,’’ the female staff warned.