The federal government yesterday revealed that about 70,000 pupils sat for the 2022 National Common Entrance Examination (NECO) for admission into its 110 colleges across the federation.
The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu made the disclosure yesterday when he led some top ministry and NECO officials on a monitoring exercise in some centres in Abuja.
Some of the centres visited include Government Secondary School, Lugbe; Junior Secondary School, Lugbe and Federal Government College, Kwali, Abuja.
After the inspection, Adamu revealed that out of the total figure, there are more female applicants than their male counterparts in the on-going examination.
Adamu, represented the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr. David Adejo, said: “Of the 69,000 plus, we have 36,855 female applicants while the balance of 32,000 plus are male.”
On his assessment of the exercise, the minister explained that the examination “has been hitch-free and peaceful.”
He added that laid out standards and criteria would strictly be adhered to in the selection of successful candidates.
He said: “As far as Nigerian basic education is concerned, and in respect to the junior and secondary schools, the unity schools still remain the best, so for you to get into it, it has to be competitive.
“We are not looking at taking all the 69,000 plus, we are taking the best of the 69,000 plus and there are standards that measure what you take.
“So the standard and criteria have been put on the ground, so I don’t see us having a problem with all that,” he said.
Also during the inspection, NECO’s Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Ibrahim Wushishi confirmed that Lagos State recorded the highest number of registered candidates for this year’s examination.
He said Lagos state registered the highest number of candidates with 19,516 candidates, while the least registered state is Kebbi with 74 candidates; they had 37 males and 37 females.
