Nigerians with t the National Examinations Council, NECO, certificate stand a chance of being admitted into universities in the United Kingdom.
This was revealed by the Registrar of NECO, Professor Ibrahim Wushishi. He stated that universities in the UK are interested in NECO certificates for admitting Nigerian students.
The Registrar said two Universities have reached out to know the level of credibility of NECO examinations so as to be used for admission.
Prof. Wushishi made this disclosure while speaking with journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, May 15.
The Registrar also spoke on the digitalization and the potential migration to Computer-Based Testing (CBT) by NECCO. He, however, stated the complexity of the CBT to NECO examinations.
He pointed that nearly 1.5 million students take the examinations in 76 different subjects and over 150 different papers annually. This is to qualify them for admissions into tertiary institutions.
Considering the possibility of using CBT for NECO examinations, the Registrar said, the challenges that come with CBT should be thoroughly dealt with. He stated that NECO is unlike other examination bodies like JAMB that primarily use multiple-choice formats.
“For the fact that NECO is the largest examination body by virtue of the number of examinations we conduct, migrating to CBT is a critical issue,” the Registrar said.
“For JAMB, they are not examining candidates in so many subject areas. So, they find it very easy to embrace CBT in their examinations and do multiple choice in their exams.
“As far as NECO is concerned, if you look at the nature of our exams, particularly in SSCE internal for admissions into tertiary institutions, every year we examine students close to 1.5 million which is a large number.
“For these 1.5 million candidates, we examine them in 76 different subjects and in more than 150 different papers.
“So, if we look at the complexity of these exams, particularly the essays where we have different papers, going to CBT is something that experts need to sit down and look at the nitty gritty of the exams.
“We have to do that gradually, and there are some areas in our exams we could start with. Like the Common Entrance Examination, which is multiple choice-based. But then, we must look at the nitty gritty of doing that.”
Wushishi also spoke on strategies put in place by NECO to curb examination malpractices in its upcoming SSCE internal examinations. He said, there was no fear of exam leakages because NECO had put in place sophisticated mechanisms to check malpractices.
“We are putting in place programmes for continuous sensitization awareness. And we are going to improve in the area of data protection to safeguard our candidates’ information.
“We are getting sophisticated identities to check malpractices. As well as identify fishing sites to know if our papers leaked.
“We have no fears of any malpractices in the conduct of our exams coming up in June,” the Registrar said.
source: Vanguard
