The National Examinations Council (NECO) has lamented the deduction of over N6 billion from its Treasury Single Account (TSA) by the Federal Government, saying the examination body needs money to meet its obligations.
This is as the Council also deployed cutting-edge software to ensure efficient grading of students/candidates in its various examinations.
Registrar and Chief Executive of NECO, Professor Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, spoke in Minna during a news briefing to mark his one year in office.
Recall that the Professor of Science Education was appointed as the Registrar of NECO on 12 July 2021 by President Muhammadu Buhari and assumed office on the 26th of the same month.
While speaking on the new grading system, Wushishi, listed several achievements recorded since assuming office, saying the software would ensure precise grade value for every subject.
“One of the innovations that will bring to bear in the conduct of the examination is determining the way and manner we determine the grade number, which relates to the allocation of grades for various subjects to students.
“Formerly it was done manually and there are processes that are followed in doing that manually but when I came, I felt it is necessary to align ourselves and some of our operations with the in-thing, which is technology, and we felt there is need for us to have a software that will enable us to determine precisely real values for subjects after our exams. so we had a workshop for that and we were able to now deploy standard software to determine grade and marking.”
He, however, lamented that the initial placement of NECO on the list of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), that remit 25 per cent of generated revenue to government coffers, took a toll on the examination body’s activities.
Wushishi said though NECO was removed from the list in June 2022, over N6 billion was deducted from its Treasury Single Account (TSA) when it was on the list, adding that the examination body needs money to meet its obligations.
“From 2021 to date, to June (this year), the Minister of Finance has deducted from NECO’s Treasury Single Account, the total of N6,023,145,000:23K.
“We also need to pursue that this money removed, that the 50 per cent is supposed to be taken as operating surplus and give us the rest to settle our debts, so we have another battle for the reconciliation.”
On the successes recorded in recent times in the conduct of the school-based Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) and its external version, Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) as well as the National Common Entrance Examination of unity schools, Wushishi said has was able to put in place mechanisms to drastically reduces cases of malpractice and other challenges.
The NECO boss listed some of the measures to include the deployment of robust security surveillance for examination papers and officials, improved welfare mechanisms for staff and examiners, use of foolproof software in the selection of NECO staff on monitoring duties, among others.
“In 2020, we had over 30,000 cases of exam malpractice. In 2021 we had just about 20,000 and this year we have confidence it will reduce to the barest minimum. In our last BECE the malpractice was about 600 cases and this year it was less than 100,” he said.
While commending President Buhari, Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu and the governing board of NECO for their great support to the Council, Wushishi said the exam body relies heavily on money generated from candidates’ registrations for its various capital projects and other activities that relate to conduct of exams.
Speaking further, Wushishi said some of the policies and innovative reforms he initiated in NECO have brought about a positive turnaround of the Council and more efficient conduct of all its examinations within Nigeria and some other neighbouring African countries, including the Niger Republic, Gabon, among others.
Meanwhile, the National Examination Council has disclosed that it has initiated action aimed at recovering the over N2 billion owed the Council by some Northern State Governments for examination fees.
NECO Registrar Dantani Wushishi had a few months ago disclosed that some northern state governments owe examination fees of N2.8bn
“State Governments offer to pay examination fees for candidates from their states but when it comes to the actual payment, they don’t do it, and that has strapped NECO.
“Zamfara, Adamawa, Kano, Gombe, Borno and Niger State governments as owing the examination body N1.8 billion debt for the students they registered in 2019,” he said.
Wushishi told newsmen in Minna that some of the states have started responding while efforts were ongoing in collaboration with the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to recover all the money.
The NECO boss said: “When it comes to the issue of debt, of course, we have done a lot to recover them, but some states are still indebted to the Council to the tune of over N2 billion.
“We are making efforts and some states are responding. Through our struggle to solve our problems, we have a commitment from the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, to the extent that we can take the MoU with the states that defaulted to the AGF office, but we are very tactical about it because we have to sensitise them on the need to keep this place afloat.
“It is by payment of what they subscribe to the Council that we would keep us afloat,” he said.
He added that the Council is being tactical about it and getting results, noting that so far no state has been taken to AGF for deduction from their allocation.
He revealed that a lot of security measures have been taken to ensure hitch-free conduct of NECO examinations, saying the Council has engaged the services of both uniform and plain clothes security agencies to mount the examination centres across the country.
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