66% of candidates failed English in NECO exam

The National Examination Council, on Thursday, released the result of the 2012 November/December Senior School Certificate Examination with only 33.89 per cent of the 75,623 candidates that sat for the examination obtaining credit in English Language.

The NECO Registrar, Prof. Promise Okpala, who announced this at a press briefing in Minna, however said that 54.8 per cent of the candidates obtained credit passes in mathematics.

Giving a breakdown of the performances of candidates, the NECO Registrar said a total of 83,755 candidates registered for the examination but only 75, 623 candidates actually sat for it.

Out of this number, the candidates recorded 33.89 per cent credit pass in English Language, 54.79 per cent credit pass in Mathematics, 78.97 per cent in Arabic and 22.84 per cent credit pass in Biology.

He added that only 6.51 per cent of candidates who sat for Christian Religious Studies obtained credit passes; Economics, 33.67 per cent  Geography, 1.63 per cent; Literature in English, 0.73 per cent; Chemistry, 30.17 per cent, while only 0.26 per cent of candidates that sat for Physics made credit pass.

In spite of this unimpressive performance, Okpala disclosed that the 2012 result was an improvement in NECO result over the past three years.

According to him, only 4.7 per cent of the candidates that sat for the same examination in 2010 made credit pass in English Language, while only 10 per cent made credit pass in 2011.

He added that in 2010 only 19.4 per cent of the candidates made credit pass in Mathematics, while 44.7 per cent obtained credit pass in 2011.

"So, the November/December 2012 SSCE is comparatively better and a marked improvement over what we witnessed in 2010 and 2011,” he said.

He also said that the examination agency recorded few cases of examination malpractice. This, he said, was so because of the security measures put in place by NECO. These, he added, include robust logistics strategy for managing examination materials, the use of men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps as external monitor.

"This ensured that candidates conduct themselves responsibly during the examination,” he said.

Okpala, however, said that Taraba State, with 18.82 per cent, emerged as the state with the highest number of candidates with cases of examination malpractices.

 Imo came second with 15.56 per cent and Jigawa, with a total of 956 candidates, recorded 140 cases or 14.6 per cent to emerge the third state with the highest number of candidates allegedly involved in malpractice during the examination.

He, however, said Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, recorded the lowest number of candidates involved in examination malpractices with 0.37 per cent.

The FCT was closely followed by Osun and Kwara states.