By Augustine Okezie
Abuja
The National Examination Council (NECO) has announced the postponement of the Basic Education Certificate examinations nationwide from May 8 to May 10because of the ongoing World Economic Forum on Africa (WEFA) in Abuja.
The Registrar of NECO, Prof. Promise Okpala, told newsmen yesterday in Minna, Niger state, that the examination timetable had to be adjusted because of the closure of public institutions in the FCT which also affected schools.
Okpala said examination materials could not be released in other states while schools in other states were closed as this would affect the credibility of the examination.
He said the examination, scheduled to start from Thursday, May 8 and end on May 22, would now begin on May 10 and end on May 24.
The registrar explained that the French Language and Business Studies exam, scheduled to hold yesterday and today, would now hold on Friday, May 23 and Saturday, May 24, respectively.
He said this was to allow for uniformity in the conduct and safeguard the credibility of the examination.
Okpala regretted any inconvenience the shift might have caused all those concerned and called for support for the Council in ensuring a smooth conduct of all its examinations.
According to him, this year’s enrolment for the examination had improved with a nationwide enrolment of 110,316 candidates, which was a pointer to the fact that education was being taken seriously and was not being affected by any challenges the country might be facing.
He said the South-west zone had the highest enrolment for the examination, formerly known as Junior Secondary Certificate Examination (JSCE), with 38,218 candidates.
The North-central is second with 24,883; the North-west with 11,802, followed by the North-east with 9,887.
He said the South-east had the lowest enrolment figure of 9,553 candidates.
The registrar assured of NECO’s commitment to ensuring smooth and credible conduct of examinations in the country.