No fewer than 70,603 pupils sat for the 2024 National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE) into Federal Unity Colleges on Saturday, June 1, 2024.

The Registrar of the National Examination Council (NECO), Prof. Ibrahim Wushishi, disclosed this during the monitoring of the examination in Abuja.

Wushishi said there was a reduction in the registration compared to 2023 when 72,865 registered.

Reeling out the statistics, Wushishi said NECO registered 33,335 males and 37,268 females, a lower registration compared to 2023 with 34,064 males and 38,801 females.

He stated that the pupils were posted to write the examination in 599 centres across the country.

The NECO boss added that many factors were responsible for the lower registration, including the economy.

Wushishi said: “There was a slight increase in the cost of registration and we all know what is happening in the economy.

NECO shifts entrance exam into unity colleges

“This affected everybody, especially those in the rural areas; candidates are not sponsored at this level.”

Speaking on the promise made in 2023 by former Permanent Secretary David Adejo that no underage candidate would be allowed to sit for the examination Wushishi said the council had implemented the decision.

He stated: “We have promised to address the situation of underage children writing the examination and we did.

“You will find out that most of the candidates you see here that look underage are not, because some of them have just one month to complete 10 years.

“So, in such cases, we excuse them to write; we don’t have any issue that has to do with any underage sitting this exams.”

On his part, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education, Lawal Usman, commended NECO for the conduct of the examination.

Usman, who represents Kaduna Central in the Senate, urged NECO to upgrade its examinations to ICT platform just as conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

He added that sponsorship for NECO and JAMB was rolled out throughout his state.

The lawmaker said: “We contributed over 200 million to parents to be able to pay for the children’s NECO and JAMB.

“I am calling on other senators and House of Representatives members to key into this because this is the foundation for every child.”

The Star