ABUJA – Prof. Promise Okpala, the Registrar of National Examinations Council (NECO), said the council was ready for Saturday’s examination for admission into Federal Unity Colleges.Okpala gave the assurance on Thursday in Abuja in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He said the examination, earlier scheduled to hold last month, was postponed to give all stakeholders more time to achieve wider access.
The registrar said that about 31,500 out of the 40,000 candidates that qualified for the second test had registered for the examination, which would take place in 172 centres across the country.
He said the new policy of qualifying for a second test for admission into the federal unity colleges was to ensure that the best brains were given the opportunity to realise their potentials.
According to him, since the quality of input determines the quality of output, the Federal Ministry of Education has taken steps to ensure that the schools are not only equipped with infrastructure, but also the best students to insure the future of the sector.
“This infrastructure and human capital can only be put to effective use if you place square pegs in the square holes,” he said.
Okpala said the council was expecting a good outing on Saturday as there were usually no administrative problems with this category of candidates.
He said these were children under good guidance by parents and who usually behaved very well.
Okpala said NECO was expected to turn in 24,000 candidates, which is the carrying capacity of the schools, for admission into the 109 unity colleges across the country.
NAN recalls that the then Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, had during the conduct of the first Common Entrance Examination, said that another test would be conducted for candidates who passed the examination to select the best for admission based on merit.
Wike announced this when he monitored the examination, which held on April 26, in some schools in the FCT.
According to the minister, this is in line with government’s promise to ensure that 60 per cent of admissions into federal government colleges were on merit.
The minister said 40 per cent would be allocated on the basis of quota system. (NAN)