1.3m Students Sit for NECO’s SSCE

No fewer than 1,367,210 candidates are currently taking the 2025 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) conducted by the National Examinations Council (NECO) across the country, using a dual mode of Computer-Based Testing (CBT) and Paper-and-Pencil Testing (PPT).

Of this number, 685,551 candidates are male, while over 681,300 are female. Kano State is listed among the highest number of registered candidates with more than 137,000 enrolment, while Kebbi had a little above 5,000. The NECO Registrar, Prof. Ibrahim Wushishi, announced this yesterday during the monitoring of the examination at a pilot CBT centre, SASCON International School, Maitama, Abuja. He was accompanied by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa. It was the first time NECO ever explored the use of CBT to conduct the O-Level examination in select centres across Nigeria. Alausa recently mandated NECO and the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to begin the conduct of their examinations, using CBT by 2026.

NECO deployed some already established schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in its pilot phase.Asked to explain how feasible it would be to deploy CBT to conduct NECO’s SSCE at the post-basic level, Wushishi said: “NECO is ready as a professional body to conduct examinations using any medium. We may have challenges with infrastructure; that is obvious. However, that will not deter us from doing it. There are facilities that will allow us to conduct CBT, and we are ready to proceed. We are all aware that there are certain rugged terrains across countries where we cannot meet up, except in cases where there are exceptional infrastructures that provide us with the opportunity to do so. But by and large, we are very, very much ready to do that as a professional body. Provisional infrastructures: we are calling on the government at the state level to expedite the provision of CBT infrastructures in their states. We highly support the process. Because we believe the process will reduce many issues that have to do with examination malpractice and improve the quality of the examination and consequently, the results and certificates.”