69,823 candidates sit for NECO Unity Schools entrance exams

More than 69,823 candidates on Saturday sat for the 2022 National Common Entrance Examination for admissions into the 110 Federal Government Colleges otherwise known as Unity Schools.

Minister of Education Malam Adamu Adamu, who monitored the exercise in Abuja alongside Registrar of National Examination Council (NECO), Professor Dantani Wushishi and some top officials of the Ministry, commended NECO for the smooth conduct of the examination held across the nation.

The monitoring team were at the Goverment Secondary School, Lubge, Junior Secondary School, Federal Housing Authority, Lugbe and Federal Government Secondary School, Kwali, Abuja.

The Minister who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr David Adejo Andrew noted that the monitoring exercise was to see what was happening in the examination centres in line with the determination of Federal Ministry of Education in ensuring that only the best are admitted into the Unity Colleges, stressing that admissions into the schools were highly competitive because of over subscription by candidates.

According to him, Unity Schools remain one of the best in Nigeria as far as basic education is concerned and that getting admission into them have to be competitive, saying “we are not looking at taking all the 69,000, we are looking at taking the best of this number and the standards have been laid down. 

He noted that the interesting thing about the 2022 examination, especially against the backdrop of clamour for gender equality in education, was that more female candidates registered for the entrance examination with a total number of 36,855 out of the 69,823

candidates that registered for the examination while the number male is about 32, 000.

“The idea of monitoring the examination conducted by NECO is to see how we are progressing in terms of the basis for even establishing the Unity Schools in the first place. So, the monitoring actually started from the office where we have to know how many have applied, where are the places we are getting many applicants from, why are not getting applicants from where we are going?” he said.

Registrar of NECO, Professor Ibrahim Dantani Wushishi in his remark said from the report gathered from all the states of the Federation, the exercise went on smoothly in all the examination centres.

He disclosed that Lagos State had the highest number of registered candidates put at 19,516 applicants while Kebbi State is the least with 74 registered candidates; 37 male and 37 female.

Wushishi, said the Common Entrance Examination was hitch-free going by the reports from all the six geopolitical zones of the country, adding that this was also an indication that the Council is on the right track in terms of the repositioning and restructuring that is ongoing.

He assured Nigerians that the results of the examination would be ready as soon as possible for announcement to the public by the Federal Ministry of Education.

On the over N2 billion debt owed to the Council by some State Governments, the NECO Registrar, said the Council started recovery of the money while other processes would be explored to recover the funds.