The results for the 2019 National Common Entrance Examination conducted by the National Examination Council for admission into unity schools, which was conducted on April 27, have been released. However, before the examination was held, the deadline for the registration of candidates had to be postponed from April 13 to April 27 due to low registration of candidates.
In the last few years, the examining body experienced a steady decline in the number of candidates. The year 2014 recorded 95,926 registered candidates. In 2015, just about 86,000 pupils registered for the examination, while 90,786 and 80,421 pupils registered for the examination in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Also, 71,294 candidates registered in 2018. In 2019, 75,635 candidates registered for the examination.
The acting Registrar of NECO, Mr Abubakar Gana, attributed the drop in the number of candidates for the 2019 examination to lack of sponsorship. “The number dropped because of the politics in the country. The politicians that used to bankroll candidates for the exams were busy in the field. So it affected the number. Most of the candidates in the Northern states are assisted by politicians.”
Meanwhile, in 2015, the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, blamed the decline in registration of candidates on the security crises in the country at the time. Also, the recently appointed Education Sub -Committee of the Presidential Committee on North-East Initiative revealed that in the nine years, 2,295 teachers had been killed and 19,000 others were displaced in Bornu, Yobe and Adamawa states. The committee further disclosed that since 2014 about 1,500 schools had been destroyed, with over 1,280 casualties recorded among teachers and pupils.
Upon investigating, our correspondent found that parents were not just aware of the pressing security issues, they were, according to them, avoiding unity schools because of the insecurity in the country. A resident of Lagos, LanreGbadamosi, whose 10 year-old child was preparing to write an entrance examination into a private school, told our correspondent, “As much as I attended a unity school and I have friends from different tribes as a result of that education, I cannot help but avoid federal government colleges because of the killings all over the country.
“Only this morning (Thursday) we have heard of cult clashes in Edo State and herdsmen attacks in Taraba State, both of which have left dead bodies in their wake. There is even a report of gunmen burning a Police station. If that can happen to a police station, then my child is going nowhere beyond my reach.”
Another parent, Jacob Onyema, said the insecurity in the country was enough reason to shut down unity schools in volatile states. “The number of pupils registered for common entrance, if it were up to me, will continue to reduce because the country is not safe. I feel the best thing for our unity schools is to close down the ones in troubled states because to allow my child to write common entrance means I am prepared to have him sent to the North, that, I cannot do,” he said. Punch
Pix: Ngeria’s Eucation Minister, Adamu Adamu
