Introduction
One
of the last acts of the Abdulsalami Abubakar military administration was the promulgation of
a decree, in April 1999, that created the National Examinations Council
(NECO). That act, however, was
only the climax of a process whose beginning predated the administration. Although calls for the creation of a national
examination outfit had been on for over two decades earlier, the birth
of NECO was not spared controversy.
While some Nigerians saw its arrival as opportunity for choice
of examination body for candidates to patronize, others doubted its
capacity to conduct reliable examinations that could command widespread
national and international respect and acceptability.
Some others welcomed it for its potential, as a Federal Government
parastatal, to offer subsidized registration
to candidates; yet others queried even its legal status.
The
NECO mandate
By
its mandate, NECO was to take over the responsibilities of the National
Board for Educational Measurement (NBEM) which was created, in 1992,
by the Ibrahim Babangida administration, although its enabling decree was
promulgated in 1993. However,
the conduct of the Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) which
had, hitherto, been the exclusive preserve of the West African Examinations
Council (WAEC) was made an additional responsibility of the new examination
outfit. NECO was to take exclusive
charge of the conduct of the SSCE for school based candidates while
WAEC was to take charge of the same examination for private candidates. NECO was to conduct its maiden SSCE in mid 2000.
Restructuring
of NBEM
The
additional responsibility of NECO over those of its precursor called
for some restructuring of NBEM. Not
only was the staff strength to be increased, there was also need for
offices to be established in every State of the Federation and the
Federal Capital Territory (FCT) if NECO was to effectively cope with
the enormity of its mandate. Consequently, within one year of its creation,
the staff strength of NECO had quadrupled that of NBEM in 1998.
Moreover,
by January 2000, NECO offices had been established in every State
and FCT. NBEM operated with six zonal offices located
in Bauchi, Ibadan, Katsina,
Makurdi, Owerri
and Ilorin. NECO created other
zonal offices in Akure, Asaba,
Damaturu, Enugu, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Sokoto,
Uyo and Yola. Kano replaced Katsina
(which became a state office) as a zonal office.
Furthermore,
NECO invested heavily in data processing technology to enable it cope
with the anticipated increase in the volume of data it would need
to process over a relatively short period of time.
Consequently, its computer facility was upgraded to an administrative
unit and a custom-built complex constructed for it. It was also equipped with state-of-the-art computer
systems and professionals to man the facility. Two 250KVA back-up generators were also provided
the Computer Unit Complex to ensure uninterrupted operations at all
times, but especially during peak periods immediately preceding the
publication of results. During
such periods, the unit operated a 24 hour day schedule with three
shifts each day.
The
transport section of the organisation
was not left out in the upgrading process that was aimed at enabling
the component parts of the structure inherited by NECO cope with expected
increases in workload emanate from its new status.
By the end of its first year of existence, NECO had trebled
the size of the fleet of vehicles it inherited at its inception.
In the effort to do this, the organisation
also introduced a large number of trucks, previously nonexistent in
its fleet. This greatly enhanced
its ability to distribute and retrieve examination materials to and
from all parts of the Country.
Conclusion
The
story of NECO and its achievements is a continuously developing one
and cannot be completely told in a piece as short as this.
However, as has been observed elsewhere,
Perhaps, the greatest achievement of NECO is that it has provided
gainful employment for over a thousand Nigerians [and given hope to
thousands more – candidates who had been able to keep their matriculation
dates because of the timely release of their results by NECO].
By
this, as many Nigerians have the opportunity to contribute to the
development of their nation and the feeling of wellbeing that results
from this sense of actualization is difficult to quantify in concrete
terms. Moreover, the greater number of family members
who depend on these thousand NECO staff [and who would depend on the
many more thousand potential graduates of tertiary
institutions
referred to earlier] means a reduction from the number of potential
sources of instability in the community.
Further, whatever resources these might be able to plough back
in the form of economic activity is a potential generator of wealth
in the nation. Consequently, the dividends of NECO stretch well
beyond the horizon of testing, measurement or evaluation. They touch thousands of Nigerian lives and do
so for the better. That, perhaps,
is the greatest achievement of NECO