vanguard news Boko Haram: NECO raises alarm

.Releases 2013 Nov/Dec GCE results .Records 48.7%, 53.8% passes in English, Maths BY LAIDE AKINBOADE ABUJA — National Examination Council, NECO, has raised an alarm over the effect Boko Haram insurgency would have on conduct of future examinations in the northern part of the country. Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of NECO, Professor Promise Okpala, stated this,weekend, while announcing release of the General Certificate of Education, GCE, examination results of November /December last year in Minna. He said: “During the conduct of the examination, the council was faced with challenges associated with insecurity in some parts of the country. “The challenges affected the overall time-line for the conduct of the examination, marking of the result scripts and the release of the results scripts.” Also announcing the release of the results, Professor Okpala said there was a remarkable improvement in candidates’ performances in the core subjects, English and Mathematics, compared with the situation in the previous years. He said of the 51,759 candidates who sat for the examination, 31,201 scored credits in Mathematics, while 28,113 candidates, representing 48.7 per cent of the candidates scored credit in English Language. He said Zamfara recorded highest cases of malpractice in the examination, with 6.14 per cent, followed by Imo with 5.28 per cent. Okpala said the Federal Capital Territory and Bayelsa State, recorded zero per cent in cases of examination malpractice. Okpala, who noted that there had been improvement in NECO results in the last three years, attributed it to its collaboration with stakeholders and security agents, especially the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, NCSDC.