Exams cheating: NECO recommends 3 schools for de-recognition

The National Examination Council (NECO) on Tuesday released its June/July Senior Secondary School Examination results and recommended the de-recognition of three schools in Katsina, Kebbi and Oyo states for two years, for their involvement in mass cheating during the examinations.

The Acting Registrar of the council, Alhaji Abubakar Gana, disclosed this during the release of the 2019 June/July Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) results in Minna, saying that a total of 1,163,194 registered for the examination.

He said that a total of 40, 630 cases of malpractices were recorded, representing 3.53 per cent in 2019; as against 20,181 in 2018.

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He said that the number of candidates that sat for the examination was 1,151,016, including 146 blind students.

According to him, the candidates who made credit and above in the English language were 984,152, which represented 85.50 per cent;  while candidates who made credit in mathematics were 954,399; representing 83. 03 per cent.

He explained that candidates with five credits and above, including English and Mathematics were 829, 787, representing 71.59 per cent when compared to 2018 June/July SSCE, which was an increase of 0.11 per cent.

He said that candidates who made five credits and above, irrespective of English Language and Mathematics, were 1,041,986 representing  89.90 per cent; signifying a drop by 0.57 per cent.

“Arising from the above, three schools in Katsina, Kebbi and Oyo states have been recommended for de-recognition for two years, for their involvement in mass cheating.

” A total of 18 supervisors have been blacklisted for various offences ranging from poor supervision, aiding, abetting and connivance with candidates, to write answers on the chalkboard,” he said.

Gana explained that in line with the Council’s zero tolerance for any form of examination malpractice; members of staff alleged to have behaved contrary to expectations, would face appropriate disciplinary measures once they failed to satisfy the board.

“This is in line with the tradition of NECO. Last year all those who compromised were made to face disciplinary committee to defend themselves,” he said.

He stated that the board achieved that feat as a result of broad-based monitoring of the examination, procurement of the state- of- the- art of biometric Verification device, and introduction of full biometrics during the last SSCE.

“The council procured 20 new vehicles for improved logistics and prompt service delivery, repositioning of NECO ICT for effective result delivery amongst others,” he said.

The registrar then called on candidates to access the approved NECO Website: www.NECO.gov.ng only, while warning candidates and parents against the activities of fraudsters.

“NECO has abolished the use of cards in all its operations as every transaction is now 100 per cent online, ” he said.