Tag: NECO

It may be end of the road for perpetrators of examination malpractices in National Examinations Council (NECO), as its Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Dantani Wushishi, intensifies measures to sanitise the council, Frank Ikpefan reports.

The National Examination Council (NECO) has begun moves to clean up its examination process and ensure the sanctity of its examinations and results.

Last month, the council announced plans to blacklist 52 supervisors who colluded with others to perpetrate mass cheating during the conduct of this year’s Internal Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE).

About 93 schools were found to have engaged in whole-school (mass) cheating during the conduct of the examination.

The NECO’s Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, said these while announcing release of the examination results, adding that  the erring schools would be invited to the council’s headquarters in Minna, the Niger State capital, for discussion while appropriate sanctions would be applied against those found culpable.

The NECO boss said 12,030 candidates, representing 0.07 per cent, were involved in various forms of malpractice, showing a slight reduction in cases of malpractice, better than the 2022 results which recorded 13,594 candidates involved in various acts of malpractice.

The registrar noted that the malpractice cases showed that 3,962 of them were detected at marking venue, including copying “foreign materials”; 2,353 students were involved in collusion; 1,975 students were involved in impersonation; and 1,813 others were involved in aiding and abetting, seeking and receiving help from non-candidates.

Challenge of protecting examination process

Protecting the sanctity of the nation’s examination process has continued to be a big challenge for examination bodies like NECO and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.

Despite the introduction of reforms by these bodies, examination malpractice remained a daunting task.

For example, parents who are desperate to have their children secure good grades to boost their entry into the nation’s tertiary institutions collude with supervisors and school owners to perpetrate examination malpractice.

Schools designated as ‘miracle centres’ usually collect what they term as ‘logistics’ from candidates, ranging from N10,000 to N30,000, depending on the school for which the examination bodies organised the examinations.

Once the supervisors and invigilators, who are ready to compromise are settled with the proceeds of logistics collected from candidates, they look away from whatever is happening in examination halls, while the teachers write answers on the boards for the students to copy.

Some candidates also freely go in with ‘missiles’ in form of textbooks, prepared answers in case of leaked papers and other ways of cheating.

The consequences of this hydra-headed challenge are enormous.

According to Head of Programmes, Monitoring, a non-governmmental organisation committed to the enthronement of transparency in government, Uadamen Ilevbaoje, “examination malpractice compromises the integrity and fairness of assessments; undermines the efforts to foster a skilled workforce and erodes the public trust in the education system.

“That’s why we need far-reaching measures that will help protect the integrity of our examinations at all costs. Because once this is done, our results will be respected globally. “

UNESCO’s survey on examination malpractice

A report by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) indicated that examination malpractice had increased by five percent in Nigeria, according to a survey by the Exam Ethics Marshals International.

The report stated that 18 out of every 100 people who participated in examinations in Nigeria in 2012 were indicted for malpractices.

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Also, a former registrar of NECO, Professor Charles Uwakwe, had revealed that 1,283,485 candidates committed examination malpractice during the Senior School Certificate Examination from 2010 to 2016. About 7,410,030 candidates sat for NECO examinations within the same period.

Tackling the menace at NECO

Prof. Wushishi, who himself is a professor of Science Education, said a number of measures had been put in place by his administration to reduce the incidents of malpractices during the council’s examinations.

He listed the measures rolled out by the council as including: effective conduct of accreditation and re-accreditation exercise in schools, biometric data capturing of candidates to check impersonation of candidates registered for examination and to help identify miracle centres where examination malpractices are perpetrated.

Others are: use of officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to provide security at examination centres, and to prevent miscreants/agents of examination malpractice, provision of covert operations by the officers of the Department of State Service (DSS) to guard against compromising examination through the internet, daily distribution of examination question papers and other sensitive materials, monitoring of marking exercise to ensure that best practices are observed, among others.

He maintained that the indigenous examination body would not tolerate actions that would undermine the integrity of its examinations across the country, including examination malpractice.

Expressing the council’s readiness to totally root out incidents of examination malpractice in all its examinations, Wushishi also called for concerted efforts to address the menace headlong.

He said: “One of the biggest challenges bedevilling the conduct of public examinations now is the issue of examination malpractice”.

The NECO boss added, “Education is very important and one major important measure that we have put in place to stop the issue of examination malpractice is awareness.”

 Introduction of e-verify portal for all NECO results.

The council also introduced the e-Verify,’ an online result verification solution that guarantees instant authentication of academic and basic information about prospective candidates.

The Programme Assistant on Education, YouthHubAfrica, Peter Ogah, praised  the registrar, saying that the platform will ease the verification of results, and checkmate manipulation and falsification of results of examinations conducted by the council.

Other reforms by the council

Since his assumption of office on July26, 2021, Wushishi has also undertaken a critical assessment of the activities of NECO and initiated policies that have brought about positive turnaround at the council.

Specifically, stakeholders lauded the registrar for NECO Warehouse and the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Department, which has been extended to Niger State NECO Office, in addition to a brand new 500 KVA transformer in both ICT Department and the Niger State Office to address their problem of lack of electricity which has been on since 2017.

It will be recalled that since taking over as NECO registrar, Wushishi initiated a transformation agenda of the council which has changed the Council’s Headquarters in Minna, which hitherto was like a dungeon, is now a sight to behold at night, as it is now well lit.

In response to the realities of the 21st Century, where technology is key, the registrar has caused the provision of internet facilities at the headquarters.

A massive mast has been installed pursuant to making internet facilities easily accessible in the council.

This provision, Wushishi has assured stakeholders, would soon be extended to all the state offices across the country. This was equally extended to ICT Department, NECO Staff School and Niger State.

Stakeholders have furthermore lauded Wushishi’s transformation, which also ensured that the 2023 SSCE NECO Internal was certified the best in recent times.

An official of the council said the upgrade of the Six Zonal Offices of the council located in the North-East; North-West; North-Central; South-East; South-South; and the South-West hitherto headed by Zonal Coordinators, which have all been upgraded to directorates with a director appointed to superintend each of them has eased the operations of the council.

He said the upgrade has given rise to expansion in the system with each zone having four divisions headed by Deputy and Assistant Directors.

He said: “This expansion has, no doubt, opened up the space for higher responsibilities and provided more hands to be part of the management process, making it more expansive and robust in scope.”

On welfare, he said the retirement benefit package took effect from January, 2022 and an insurance policy for all staff is a welcome development.

An activist, Ola Aina commended the council for successfully pursuing and securing intervention fund from the Federal Government to settle examiners, supervisors and other ad-hoc staff that participated in the 2021 SSCE Internal examination and successful conduct of October 2021 and 2022 edition of Accreditation and Re-accreditation of schools for BECE and SSCE as well as that of the March and October 2022 edition.

The council under Wushishi has also provided an e-library to enhance access to information and data on educational assessment with a view to enhancing job efficiency in Test Development, Quality Assurance and curbing examination malpractice and other infractions associated with public examinations in 2022.

Similarly, it introduced the use of stanine software in determining Grade Boundaries for BECE, SSCE Internal and SSCE External examinations, which is an innovation in the history of NECO. This brings to rest the use of manual methods in determining grade boundaries in 2022, among others.

Also, for the first time, the welfare package instituted by the registrar/CE in 2021 for retiring staff has been implemented through payment of retirees of the year 2022 1st and 2nd quarters.

Wushishi also undertook advocacy visits to the government and the people of Ebonyi, Cross River and Borno states as part of his ongoing efforts to enlist the support of the state governments in tackling some of the challenges impeding the conduct of hitch-free examinations across the nation, including the issue of examination malpractice and making NECO examination compulsory in public schools across the states.

In Ebonyi and Cross River states, the registrar sought and got approval from the governors of the states for NECO examinations to be made compulsory in all public schools, while a similar response is being awaited from Borno State.

It is believed that with some of these bold steps, Prof. Wushishi is positioning the examination body for better performance and contributions to national development.

Pupils whose Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) results were withheld by the National Examinations Council (NECO), following the non-payment of debt owed by their state government can now heave a sigh of relief as governments have started offsetting the debts. JUSTINA ASISHANA reports.

For over eight years, students of public secondary schools in Niger State who wrote the Senior Secondary School Examinations under the National Examinations Council (NECO) always had their results seized due to the debts owed the examination body by the state government.

The Niger State Government had made NECO Internal SSCE free for students in public secondary schools who passed its mock examinations as part of its effort to make education affordable to the people.

In 2018, the Sani-Bello-led administration said the state government owed the two major examination bodies in the country, the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) to the tune of N664 million.

 The then state Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Fatima Magudu, said the debt was inherited by the government from its predecessors.

 The following year, 2019, students in public secondary schools in the state were unable to access their NECO May/June SSCE results as the examination body withheld their results due to debts owed by the government.

Over 20,000 students were unable to attend their post-UTME screenings at the universities of their choice as their parents complained about the difficulties faced by their children during the post-UTME screenings.

NECO complained about the state government’s inability to pay up its debts, although government had paid some money, there was a need for more commitment before the results could be released. 

According to the state government that year, it owed NECO over N470 million but had remitted N150 million, while calling on NECO to be considerate and release the results.

“The state government has been paying NECO and WAEC for its students from the previous government and the arrangement has always been that when the government has funds, we pay in installment.

“NECO is owed N400 million this year and the government has commenced the payment. We remitted N150 million to them and we are still negotiating with them to release the results, but they have not,” the then Permanent Secretary of the Niger State Ministry of Education, Abubakar Aliyu, said.

It took several pleadings and appeals and even a letter of commitment for the payment of the debts in installments before the results of the students could be released that year.

In 2021, 30,000 students who sat the Senior Secondary School Examinations (SSCE) were marked to be denied admission into universities as the government yet again failed to pay the NECO fees or meet its commitments in paying the fees in installments as agreed.

It was learned that in 2021, when some universities released their admission lists, prospective candidates who left secondary school in 2019 and 2020 were not still able to access their results which would have made them eligible for clearance for admission.

That year, the government had said that  it would not pay the NECO fees of non-indigent pupils as it would only pay the NECO fees of indigent ones.

However, the non-indigent pupils who paid their NECO fees to the state government are still unable to access their results as they claimed that NECO stated that they didn’t receive any money from the state government.

It was learned that as of 2021, the state government was still owing the examination body N1 billion.

Some parents who spoke to The Nation expressed worry over the inability of their wards to secure admission into institutions of higher learning.

One of the parents of the affected students in 2021, Ahmed Musa whose son graduated from one of the secondary schools in Bosso, said his son has been offered admission into the Federal University of Technology, Minna but cannot go for clearance because he hasn’t got his result.

“If I knew it would be like this, I would have paid for my child. How can my child do the examination and his result is being withheld and the government is saying they will pay the fees. If they know they do not have money, they should leave us to find the money and pay. This is wickedness. If my son misses this admission because of this no result, I will never forgive this government,” he said.

A widow, Hannatu Bala, said her son attended one of the government science schools in Minna and she was happy when they were told that the government would pay the examination fees for them without knowing that it would turn out to be a bitter pill following the withholding of the result due to non-payment of the fees by the government.

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“If they had told me that I should pay, I would have struggled to pay. I have saved for my child to go into a higher institution, but I have started touching that money because he cannot do any registration now. I only pray that the result is released before the admission closes. Do I have to register him for an external examination? That would be an extra cost. The government is not being fair to us.”

The Nation learnt that for every internal SSCE NECO examination being written by students in the state, the state would need over N400 million.

Sources said paucity of funds was responsible for non-payment of the fees.

“This has been a long-term challenge. The problem of non-payment for the NECO examination did not start from this government, it started long ago, as far as 2013. The government has agreed with the examination body and has agreed to pay a certain amount of money monthly. The problem is not from the ministry, it is the Ministry of Finance that releases the money and not the Ministry of Education,” a source said.

This development led the State House of Assembly to investigate this development after the students protested at the NECO headquarters over the non-release of their final examination results.

A week after the incident, the state government paid part of the money to secure the release of the 2019 and 2020  results,  although the amount paid was not stated.

The then Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Hannatu Jibrin Salihu, told the pupils  that they could log into the NECO website to access their results as the government was working to address all issues and challenges that would affect their future.

Last year, the Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of NECO, Prof. Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, said the state government was owning the examination body about N500 million.

He said the state government had been clearing its debt, hence, it was reduced to N500 million.

This year, Wushishi noted that the debt owed the examination body by various states was less than N3 billion and that they have been cooperating in defraying it.

It came as a welcome development when the state government on Monday September 2, 2023 announced that it had paid N120 million out of its N500 million debt.

The Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Binta Mamman, who stated this during a briefing with journalists in Minna, disclosed that the state government has given a standing order for the monthly payment of N30 million  to offset the debt.

This would no doubt ensure that the backlogs are cleared.

The Commissioner stated that the government would ensure that the state does not owe NECO anymore after settling the current debt.