The National Examinations Council (NECO) has said 828,284 of the 1,367,736 candidates, representing 60.55 per cent of those who sat for this year’s Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) internal, passed English, Mathematics, and three other subjects.
NECO’s Registrar/Chief Executive, Prof. Dantani Wushishi, announced this while addressing reporters yesterday in Minna, the Niger State capital, on the release of this year’s SSCE internal results.
Other details of the results showed that 83.9 per cent of the candidates who sat for the examination earned five Credits and above, irrespective of English language and Mathematics.
Giving a breakdown of the results, he said: “The 2024 SSCE was conducted from Wednesday, June 19, to Friday, July 26, 2024, while the marking took place from Monday, August 19 to Sunday, September 8, 2024.
“Today makes it 55 days after the last written paper, which signifies that all the processes leading to the successful release of the 2024 SSCE Internal results have been concluded.”
He added: “Number of candidates registered for the examination is 1,376,423, representing 706,950 males and 669,473 females.
“Number of candidates that sat is 1,367,736, representing 702,112 males and 665,624 females.
“Number of candidates with five Credits and above, including English and Mathematics, is 828,284, representing 60.55 per cent.
“Number of candidates with five Credits and above, irrespective of English and Mathematics, is 1,147,597, representing 83.90 per cent.”
The registrar recalled that during the conduct of the examination, 40 schools were found to have been involved in mass cheating in 17 states.
According to him, those found culpable will face a panel and appropriate sanctions will be applied against them.
Also, Wushishi said the council blacklisted 21 supervisors in 12 states and de-recognised one school in Ekiti State for alleged mass cheating in two core subjects and one science subject.
The supervisors, the registrar said, were recommended for blacklisting for alleged poor supervision, aiding and abetting, abscondment, extortion, drunkenness, and negligence.
According to him, 40 schools were involved in whole-school mass cheating in 17 states, and they will be invited to the council for discussion, after which appropriate sanctions will be applied.
Wushishi said 8,437 candidates were involved in various forms of malpractice, but stressed that there was a 30.1 per cent reduction in the rate of malpractice.
The registrar said 2,267 candidates with special needs sat for the examinations.
He announced that “1,103 candidates with hearing impairment, 348 candidates with visual impairment, 342 candidates with albinism, 237 candidates with autism, and 236 candidates with low vision sat for the 2024 NECO internal examinations”.
Wushishi said 269 candidates wrote the examinations from outside the country, including Benin Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Niger Republic, Togo, Cote D’Ivoire, and Saudi Arabia.
The Southwest led the regions with 15.487 per cent in the standard educational performance ranking among candidates with five Credits and above, including English and Mathematics, while the South came last with 5.666 per cent.
The registrar said NECO was considering increasing the allowances of its examiners while mulling over increasing the registration fees of its examinations to enable the council to meet increasing needs.
He added that the candidates could access their results on the NECO website using their examination registration numbers.
