In a bid to tackle the challenge of examination malpractice, the National Examinations Council (NECO), has acquired 8,000 biometric verification machines.
Disclosing this on Monday 7th October, at a briefing with the Minister of Education in Abuja on the achievements of the NECO between May 2018 and September 2019, the NECO Registrar, Abubakar Gana, said the examination body needed biometric verification machines in its 16,000 centres to strengthen its efforts towards eliminating identity theft during the conduct of its examination.
The registrar explained that identity theft had become a common form of examination malpractice.
He stated that cases of examination malpractice, especially impersonation during its examination remained a major challenge.
Gana also urged the minister to formulate a deliberate policy aimed at promoting discipline and a culture of honesty among teachers, school administrators and students.
The registrar said that council had implemented the federal government’s downward review of NECO examination fees to N2, 500.00, N4, 000.00 and N9, 850.00.
“The implementation was carried out in the registration of all NECO examinations this year,” he said.
He added that NECO had successfully developed and integrated the 2019 November/December SSCE registration software on its new website.
Gana said that regular registration for the examination effectively took-off on 19th August 2019 and is scheduled to end on 28th October, 2019 at 12.00 midnight.
