The National Examinations Council (NECO) on Tuesday released the results of the 2023 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE).
Speaking at a press conference in Minna, the Niger State capital, NECO Registrar Dantani Wushishi, a professor, described this year’s result as the best in recent times.
Mr Wushishi said 737,308 candidates representing 61.60 per cent got at least a credit in five subjects including English Language and Mathematics.
The previous year, he said, 60 per cent of the candidates recorded a similar feat.
“It gladdens my heart to notify you that reports we have received so far indicate that the 2023 SSCE Internal has been certified the best in recent times,” he said.
“We are very thankful to God for this and to all those who made it possible.”
Mr Wushishi said this year’s results were released exactly 58 days after the last paper was written.
“The 2023 examination was conducted from Monday 10th July to Friday 11th August 2023. The marking exercise started on Wednesday 30th August and ended on Friday 15th September. This means that this year, we are releasing our results 58 days after the last written paper. This is as a result of our desire to ensure that we release the complete results, rather than in batches.”
Pass rate
The NECO Registrar noted that a total of 1.2 million (1,205,888) students registered for the 2023 examinations. He said 621,084 of the total figure are male while the remaining 585,804 are female.
He said 1,196,985 candidates eventually sat the examinations with 616,398 males and 580,587 females.
He added that the number of candidates with five credits and above, irrespective of English and Mathematics, is 1 million (1,013,611), representing 84.68 per cent.
Special needs
The registrar gave the breakdown of the number of candidates with special needs as 1,542.
He said 913 candidates had hearing impairment, 162 candidates with visual impairment, 103 candidates with Albinism, 61 candidates with Autism, 149 candidates with low vision, 154 candidates with Adermatoglyphia,
On malpractice
This year, the registrar said, a total of 12,030 candidates representing 0.07 per cent of the total number of candidates were involved in various forms of malpractice during the school-based examination. He said this is down from 13,595 (0.13 per cent) last year.
Hope rises for admission seekers
Meanwhile, the release of the result by NECO may have opened a new door of opportunity for admission seekers into tertiary institutions across the country.
SSCE result is one of the requirements for gaining admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions apart from the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
Apart from NECO, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) also conducts examinations for senior secondary school students and since the release of WAEC results some months ago, many candidates who did not pass have awaited NECO results as alternatives.