No fewer that 70,603 candidates have sat for the 2024 National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE) into federal unity colleges.
The Registrar/CEO, National Examination Council (NECO), Prof. Ibrahim Wushishi during the exams monitoring in Abuja on Saturday, said there was reduction in the registration compared to 2023 registration with 72,865.
Reeling out the statistics, Wushishi said the council registered 33,335 male and 37,268 female, a lower registration compared to 2023 with 34,064 male and 38,801 female.
According to him, the candidates are sitting for the examinations in 599 centres across the country.
He explained that many factors contributed to the low registration, among which is economic factor.
“So many factors are responsible for this low registration, economic factor is most prevalent factor that could hinder this low registration.
“There was a slight increase in the cost of registration and we all know what is happening in the economy, this affected everybody especially those in the rural areas candidates are not sponsored at this level,” he said.
Speaking on the promised made in 2023 by the then Permanent Secretary, David Adejo, that no underage candidate would be allowed to sit for the exams, Wushishi said the council had implemented the decision of the government.
“We have promised to addressed the situation of underage children writing the exams and we did.
“You will find out that most of the candidates you see here that looks underage are not because some of them have just one month to complete 10 years.
“So in such cases, we excuse them to write , we don’t have any issue that has to do with any underage sitting this exams,” he added.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education, Sen. Lawal Usman, commended NECO for the conduct of the exams.
Usman, representing Kaduna Central, urged the council to upgrade its examinations to ICT platform just at conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
“we roll out some NECO and JAMB sponsorship throughout my state. We contributed over 200 million to parent to be able to pay for the children NECO and JAMB.
“I am calling on other senators and house members to key into this because this is the foundation for every child,” he said.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs Didi Walson-Jack, who spoke on the assessment of tye examination, expressed satisfaction with the conduct.
“We’ve just been monitoring the ongoing NECO exams, in the FCT, we have 55 centres but we have so far monitored three centres.
“Generally, everything is going on well and we are happy with what NECO has put in place to ensure a smooth and seamless exercise,” she said.