About 92,591candidates on Saturday sat for the 2019/2020 Common Entrance Examination for admission into the 104 Unity Schools across the country.

The examination, which was organised by the National Examination Council (NECO), took place in 639 centres in nationwide.

Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, disclosed this when he led top officials of both the ministry and NECO on monitoring of the examination in Abuja on Saturday.

The Minister expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the examination and compliance of the examination centres and candidates to COVID-19 guidelines and protocols.

According to him, the Federal Government had taken note of areas of improvement in planning for future examinations.

Adamu assured the results of the common entrance examination will be released soon for the commencement of the first term, saying such development would bridge the gaps in studies created by covid-19 pandemic following the closure of schools.

Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, said the current carrying capacity of the 104 federal government colleges is 30,000.

Echono said the government had established six new colleges towards providing access as well as enhancing available spaces for intending candidates.

He commended the significant improvement in the number of registered candidates from Zamfara, which was 1,742, stating that this is the highest from the state since its creation.

He stated that the state registered only 100 candidates highest in the past but has joined the league of states who registers the highest numbers of candidates based on the state of origins.

Registrar of NECO, Prof Godswill Obioma, disclosed that over 280 internal monitors were recruited to monitor the examination.

Obioma said: “26,006 candidates registered for the exams in Lagos state, 9,763 in FCT-Abuja, Anambra 6,440, Imo State 4781, Enugu State 4457,Delta State, 2,929, Niger State, 2766, Oyo State 2,258,Ogun State 2,600, Kaduna 1197 candidates.”

Among the candidates are 44,041 male candidates and 48,550 female candidates, 22 visually impaired candidates also sat for the entrance exams across Nigeria.

He stated that it witnessed an upsurge in numbers of candidates who registered for the entrance exams, saying for 2018/2019 session, 75,000 pupils sat the exams, explaining that the upsurge is due to an increase in awareness campaign made across the country by the council.

“NECO did visibility campaign to reinstate confidence in the populace and state that NECO is now globally competitive with all examination bodies, that is why we recorded the increase in candidates, we ensured adherence to the guidelines and protocols of COVID-19 as candidates are arranged in about two metres apart, the candidates wore a face mask,” he added. (The Nation)

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