NECO releases June/July SSCE results with 70.85% success rate

The National Examinations Council (NECO) has released the results of the 2017 June/July Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE).The Council says no fewer than 745,053 out of the 1,051,472 candidates that sat for this year’s June/July Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) got five credits and above, including English and Mathematics.

The figure, which represents 70.85 per cent, indicates 1.11 per cent increase in performance of candidates compared to 2016.The result also shows that 947,850 candidates, representing 90.14 per cent, passed with five credits and above irrespective of English Language and Mathematics compared to 88.61 per cent in 2016, which represents 1.63 per cent improvement compared to last year.

The Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of NECO, Prof. Charles B. Uwakwe, who announced the release of the results at the NECO Headquarters in Minna, Niger State capital, yesterday, said “this year’s Senior School Certificate Examination was a huge success.”

He stated that despite the Council’s zero-tolerance for examination malpractices, 50,586 (4.81 per cent) candidates were involved in various forms of examination malpractices, saying that 276 schools were involved in what he called “mass cheating” in 34 states of the federation.

The registrar pointed out that this figure shows 0.52 per cent increase in cases of malpractices compared to 2016, stressing that as a result of this, “six schools were de-recognised.”

According to the examination body, Ekiti State emerged top in performance with 85 per cent of its students scoring five credits and above, including Mathematics and English.

It is closely followed by Edo and Bayelsa states with 84.61 per cent and 84.52 per cent respectively.Kebbi State came first as the state with the highest cases of malpractices.recording 8,124 cases, representing 16.05 per cent.

Also, 23 supervisors, who aided examination malpractices in one way or the other, have been blacklisted.Uwakwe maintained that the success recorded this year could be attributed to both external and internal factors, adding: “NECO candidates are examined based on Nigeria’s modern curriculum while the new cream of members of staff, as well as synergy with other bodies responsible in designing Nigerian curriculum, contributed immensely.”