79% fail English Language as NECO releases SSCE

Ugochukwu Ezeagwula


At least 870,305 candidates who sat the June/July 2010 Secondary School Certificate examination conducted by the National Examination Council failed to get credit passes in English Language.

This represents 79 per cent of the 1, 113, 177 candidates that sat the examination this year. The remaining 21 per cent of the candidates, however, obtained credit passes in the subject.

The Registrar and Chief Executive, NECO, Prof. Promise Okpala, who disclosed this on Monday in Minna, Niger State while releasing the results, also said that out of the 1,113,177 candidates that sat for the Mathematics exanination, 838,031 or 24 per cent also failed the subject.

The statistics showing the performance of students by subjects indicated that only 245,890 candidates passed English Language with 1,434 distinctions and 244,456 credit passes, out of the 1,116,195 that sat the examination.

It also indicated that 66,519 candidates that sat English had their results cancelled while 66,260 candidates experienced the same fate in Mathematics.

Okpala, however, failed to give the total number of candidates whose performance would guarantee them admission into higher institutions, claiming that it was not the responsibility of the examination body to disclose such information.

The registrar also revealed that the examination body recorded 615,000 cases of malpractices, with Rivers State topping the list with 45,131 cases.

Kaduna State also followed with 41,878 cases; Enugu, 36,904 cases, Nasarawa, 35,510; and Lagos, with 31,904 cases. But the statistics showed that Bayelsa state recorded the least malpractices with 235 cases.

The commonest malpractices, according Okpala, were mass cheating, which recorded 452,027 cases; aiding, abetting, seeking and receiving help from non-candidates, 87,778; while 13,456 cases of cheating were detected at marking venue.

Okpala said the results were released 68 days after the last paper, adding that the approach was consistent with new standards set by the council. He said that 1,143,169 candidates registered for the examinations nationwide but that 1,132,357 candidates sat the examination.

He asserted that the council had put in place structures that ensured that appropriate standards and excellence were maintained in the examination process.

According to him, the structures guaranteed the security of question papers while the use of external monitors from tertiary institutions and officers of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps ensured discipline in the examination.

“Our examination question papers have continued to undergo reliable and valid processes of examination administration, monitoring and computation to arrive at credible certification,” he said.