NECO Registrar Lauds COVID-19 Compliance in Schools

The Registrar, National Examination Council (NECO), Prof Godswill Obioma, has expressed satisfaction with the compliance of schools to the COVID-19 protocols.

Speaking after monitoring some schools in Minna, Niger State take the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) for JSS3 pupils organised by NECO, Obioma said the visited schools had complied with all the regulations given to them adding that areas which they were found wanting were pointed out to them for immediate corrections.

The El-Amin International College, Police Secondary School and the Federal Government College are amongst the schools visited where the students were writing culture and creative arts.

He said: “With my colleagues, I have monitored the students writing examinations, I sampled two government schools, a federal government college, a security school and private school to make it balanced.

“We went round to make sure that the specification that we have drawn out for them are complied with and the measures of observance of COVID-19 protocols are complied with.

“We had specified that students come with their facemasks, wash hands in the school and have hand sanitiser and I am impressed with what I have seen in the school I have gone to including where I am currently. They follow the guidelines to the letter. Our interest is to make sure that the physical spacing is complied with. That is what happened here and in other schools too.”

The Registrar further said that the Examination body is adopting prognostic monitoring where any infraction or non-compliance is addressed on the spot.

“Post-mortem monitoring is classical and obsolete, this is why NECO is now adopting prognostic monitoring where anywhere we meet certain infractions we correct them on the spot.

“We have asked the principal to create space, there are enough classes for them to write the examination since not all students are back to school. And we expect them to comply with these protocols.”

Obioma said 138,550 students were writing the BECE nationwide.  He said it was a practice for how the SSCE would be conducted in October.

“This is a dry run to the SSCE because it is smaller in scope and size for SSCE. We expect that one or two million people will register for the SSCE but this one is a dry run and whatever challenges we experience now, we will find solutions to it with the bid of improving our performance during the SSCE.” he said.