The National Examinations Council (NECO) said it has introduced and launched e-posting software that is designed to address the myriad of problems associated with the posting of council staff for out-of-station assignments.
The Registrar and Chief Executive of NECO, Professor Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, announced this while releasing the 2023 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) external candidate results, held at NECO headquarters in Minna today.
According to the NECO boss, "prior to the introduction of the annual staff posting calendar, the posting of staff for various assignments was greeted with a lot of complaints arising from lopsidedness and favouritism, which gave rise to serious agitations.
"What we are doing today is taking it a step further by digitalizing the process and making it seamless, thereby addressing some of those concerns associated with the manual process, and with the launch of e-posting, every staff member will be notified at the beginning of the year about the type and number of assignments they are eligible for and the place of assignments," he added.
He stated that an SMS notification will be sent to all staff after the launch to confirm their 2024 posting status, and it will later be broadened to include e-mail messages, noting that it will address all the issues associated with the manual approach as well as afford the staff enough time to prepare.
Professor Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi further explained that two supervisors were blacklisted, one each in Oyo and Lagos states, for poor supervision, inability to control the candidates, and aiding and abetting malpractice.
He said that about 8,518 candidates in 2023 were booked for various forms of malpractice as against 11,419 in 2022, which shows a decline in the number of malpractice cases by 25.40 percent adding that examination malpractice for 2023 SSCE external candidates, two centres, one each in Kaduna and Ogun states, were involved in the whole centre cases.
The NECO boss explained that 73,124 candidates sat for English, out of which 55,272 representing 75.59% got credit or above.
Wushishi further stated that 73,119 candidates sat for mathematics, out of which 67,815 representing 92.75% got credits and above.
He said the number of candidates who got five (5) credits and above, including English language and mathematics, was 50,066, representing 67.35%.
He also said that 62,530 candidates, representing 84.11%, got five credits or above, irrespective of English language and mathematics.