Education

SERVICOM: Why students fail NECO exams

The Compact with all Nigerians (SERVICOM) has identified poor logistics as a major factor responsible for poor performance by students in the National Examinations Council (NECO) across the country.

The Chief Service Delivery Officer of SERVICOM, Nnenna Akajemeli, made this known when she presented the Compliance Evaluation (SCE) report to the Registrar and the management of NECO at the agency’s Headquarters in Minna, the Niger State capital on Tuesday.

The SCE routine report is part of SERVICOM’s mandate to carry out independent surveys on quality of services of MDAs to ensure citizens-focus service delivery among MDAs.

The exercise is to identify gaps in service delivery and making recommendations by the SERVICOM to improve customers’ satisfaction and accountability.

According to Akajemeli, the exercise was conducted in 16 states and Federal Capital Territory out of the 36 states of the federation.

She said the mystery shopping conducted by the evaluators and the feedback received from the general public revealed that there are websites where students subscribed for NECO examination before the examination takes place.

The act, the SERVICOM boss said could discourage students from preparing for the examination and thereby, dropping the standards of the examination body.

She also identified occasional shortage of examination materials such as question papers which she said had affected the smooth administration of examination and could lead to malpractice during the exercise.

The SERVICOM boss also listed other weaknesses to include poor logistical arrangements as examination papers were either carried by motorcycles or private cars.

“Some supervisors were seen conveying sensitive materials to different centres using public transport such as motorbikes and tricycles.

“This exposes them to danger and leads to late arrival of question papers to the centres,” she said.

Other areas of weaknesses she said were meagre payments to the examination supervisors, payment for their services not promptly done among others, adding that it could lead them to engage in examination malpractices.

Akajemeli, however, urged the council to guard against all the observable challenges to guarantee the credibility of the body.

“Systems should be put in place by NECO management to safely convey supervisors and sensitive materials to examination centres.
“This would reduce the risks associated with usage of motorbikes and tricycles to ensure safety of staff and materials,” she advised.

The SERVICOM boss further assured to collaborate with the council in actualising a continuous improvement on the quality of services delivery to the citizens.

On his part, the NECO Registrar, Prof. Dantani Wushishi, appreciated the SERVICOM management for the assessment reports.

Wushishi, who was represented by the Director, General Services Development, Audu Fuka, said the council would act on the weaknesses identified by the SERVICOM for correction.

He, however, said the council had procured 70 operational vehicles for the first time to east their works during examination exercise.

The Star