The National Examinations Council, NECO, yesterday, shifted its Basic Education Certificate Examination from May 8-10 because of the World Economic Forum Africa, WEFA.
The Registrar of NECO, Prof. Promise Okpala, who stated this in an interview in Abuja, said the examination timetable had to be adjusted because of the closure of public institutions in the FCT which also affected schools.
Okpala said examination materials could not be released in other states to avoid compromising the credibility of the examination.
He said: “The examination, scheduled to start from Thursday May 8 and end on May 22, would now begin on May 10 and end on May 24.
”The French Language and Business Studies scheduled to hold on Thursday, May 8 and Friday, May 9 would now hold on Friday, May 23 and Saturday, May 24, respectively.
”This was to allow for uniformity in the conduct and safeguard the credibility of the examination”.
He, however, regretted any inconvenience the shift in the examination might have caused all those concerned and called for support for the council in ensuring a smooth conduct of all its examinations.
”This year’s enrolment for the examination had improved with a nationwide enrolment of 110,316 candidates which was a pointer to the fact that education was being taken seriously and was not being affected by any challenges the country might be facing.
”The South-West had the highest enrolment for the examination, formerly known as Junior Secondary Certificate Examination (JSCE), with 38,218 candidates.
”North Central is second with 24,883, North-West; 11,802, followed by North-East with 9,887. And South-East had the lowest enrolment figure of 9,553 candidates”.
The Registrar assured of NECO’s commitment in ensuring smooth and credible conduct of examinations in the country.
