By Abdulrasheed Yusuf
National Examinations Council (NECO) registered 69,828 candidates for the 2022 National Common Entrance Examination (NECO) with Lagos State having the highest number of 19,516 candidates.
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, gave the figures when he led some top Ministry officials and NECO officials on a monitoring exercise to some centres within the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
He said the least registered state was Kebbi State with 74 candidates; 37 males and 37 females, respectively.
According to him, out of the 69,828 candidates, 36,855 were female applicants while the balance of 32,000 plus were male.
The candidates are seeking admission into the 110 Federal Government Colleges across the country for the 2022-2023 Academic Year.
Among the centres visited were Government Secondary School, Lugbe; Junior Secondary School, Lugbe; and Federal Government College, Kwali, Abuja.
Adamu, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, David Adejo, noted that this year’s registration was unique such that it recorded more females than male candidates.
While failing to give the admission quota for this year, he told reporters that the laid out standards and criteria would be strictly adhered to in the selection of successful candidates.
“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 admitting all the 69,000 plus candidates, but we will ensure we take the best of the over 69,000 pupils and there are standards that measure what we take.
“So the standard and criteria have been put on ground, so I don’t see us having a problem with all that,” he said.
