A total number of 92,591 candidates registered for the 2020 National Common Entrance Examination held on Saturday nationwide for the 30,000 available seats in the Federal Government Colleges in Nigeria.
The break down of the candidates for the examination conducted by the
National Examination Council ( NECO )shows that 44,021 of them are males while 48,550 are females , including 22 visually impaired candidates.
Lagos State emerged top with 26,006 candidates, Federal Capital Territory (FCT),Abuja came second with 9,763 applicants, followed by Anambra with 6,440 candidates .
Zamfara State surprising improved from its bottom position, to move 14th place with 1,742 applicants.
The last bottom three states are Kaduna with 1,197, Osun 1,194, and Cross River with 1,147 applicants.
Perment Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education,Mr Sonny Echono, who revealed the statistics in Abuja, during the conduct of the examination over the weekend across 639 centres in the country, said the number of candidates was a significant increase over the previous three years.
"This year, we have more than 92,000 applicants for this examinations which jumped from between 72,000 and 75,000, which we have had concurrently for three years", he revealed.
Echono who was accompanied by top officials of NECO, during the monitoring of the conduct of the examination,commended Zamfara for moving from the state with the least registered students to number 14 in the 2020 common entrance examination into Federal Government Colleges.
He attributed the Zamfara State improvement in the number of registered candidates which is the highest among Northern States, to the political will demonstrated by the State Government.
The permanent secretary also lauded the President Muhamedu Buhari's administration for its investment in infrastructure and secured learning environment in the Federal Government Colleges.
“First, we are grateful to Mr President for the modest investment in technology to provide basic infrastructure to make our schools secure and to make sure that proper teaching and learning can take place in those schools",he stated.
Federal Government according to Echono, had approved construction of 16 technical Schools within the next three years, to boost technical education in the country.
NECO Registrar, Prof. Godswill Obioma attributed the increase in the number of registered candidates for this year's National Common Entrance Examination, to the deepening awareness of the examination council.
"NECO did a lot of visibility campaign to reinstate confidence in the public, which means NECO has now come of light, so we see an upsurge from clientele to parents and students.", the registrar stated.
Obioma said that 284 internal monitors were deployed by the council as well as the deployment of 295 external monitors by the ministry of education for the conduct of the examinations to maintain standard.
“And that is why we have above 92,000 this year. In terms of coordination, you can see the students in compliance with the COVID-19 guidelines; about two metres apart and the students are putting on their face masks,” he said.
The registrar however said that the council had proposed a five-year strategic plan which included the use of information technology in the conduct of its examinations.
The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu commended the students for their comportment in the examination, while expressing satisfactions with the observance of COVID-19 protocols as stated by the Federal Government.
Adamu promised that the results would be ready as soon as possible.
The minister also explained that effort was being made to regularise the academic calendar destrupted by COVID-19 pandemic, saying that Federal Government Colleges would resume for new academic calendar in January 2021 after completing the 2019/2020 session in December.
“The exam is very good; they have done the protocol of COVID-19 as is it expected and I think the spacing is alright and they started on time."Adamu lauded.
According to the minister “They are going to finish their third term and then the new calendar can start next year, so for Federal Government Colleges, when the examination is through, you will get to know the date,”.
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