169 candidates wrote 2016 NECO Common Entrance in IDP camps—Minister

Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwuka, over the weekend in Abuja, announced that over 169 candidates at the internally displaced persons camps (IDPs) in the North-East wrote the 2016 National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE) for admission into the unity colleges.
Anwuka, who made the disclosure while monitoring the conduct of NCEE on Saturday in Abuja, said the number of students writing NCEE in the North-East had increased as insurgency eased off.
The Daily Times gathered that NCEE which is organised by the National Examination Council (NECO) had a total number of registered students for the 2016 NCCE at  90, 786 with Lagos State having the highest number with 25, 963 candidates while Zamfara had the least with 103 candidates.
Anwuka said: “Adamawa State has 347 comprising of 313 for regular students; while those in Internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps at 34.
“Borno State has 187 regular students; those in IDPs–120, total for Borno-307; Yobe State has 387 regular students; those in IDPs- 15, total for Yobe-402.
“Last year, Lagos had the highest registration with 25, 437; the lowest last year was Borno understandably with 35; the total for last year was 86, 365.
“As the insurgency problem is easing off, more of our students are registering for NCCE and affording themselves the opportunity to enter Federal Government Colleges,’’ he said.
According to him, there is a remarkable increase in the number of students from Borno and Yobe states in 2016 examination.
The minister said that in 2015, Borno had 35 candidates as against 387 in 2016 while, Yobe had 68 in 2015 as against 402 in 2016.
He said that available spaces for the candidates across the 104 unity schools in the country was 26, 000.
Anwuka further maintained that improving the quality of teachers was the main concern of the Federal Ministry of Education as it works toward producing the best qualified teachers for the students.
On his part, NECO’s Registrar, Prof. Abdulrasheed Garba, said that adequate security measures had been put in place in states having security challenges.
He said the results are expected to be released by NECO to the Federal Ministry of Education on April 20 after which the ministry will direct NECO to make it public.
“Candidates are to check the status of their qualification for the interview test both at the various unity colleges and on-line via NECO websitewww.mynecoexams.com as soon as the release of results in announced.
“Candidates that qualify after writing this examination will be invited for final selection interview coming up on a date to be announced after the release of this results,’’ he said.
Garba said that Computer Based Test (CBT) was the latest innovation in examinations across the world, adding that the council would migrate to CBT when adequate facilities were put in place.