The National Examinations Council (NECO) has sought for collaboration with the Department of State Services (DSS) to check malpractice in the conduct of the Council’s examination.
Chairman, Governing Board of NECO, Dr. Abubakar Saddique who led the Acting Registrar and other management teams on a visit to the Director-General of DSS in Abuja, said such collaboration would ensure the credibility of the Council’s examination.
Dr. Saddique explained that the Council has put in place measures aimed at checking examination malpractice, but noted that without an adequate security architecture, such measures would not yield the desired results.
He stated that among the measures introduced is the biometric capturing of candidates to check impersonation at examination centres.
The chairman, therefore, appealed to the personnel of DSS to strengthen their collaboration with NECO to prevent any form of malpractice before, during and after the conduct of the Council examination.
The Acting Registrar/Chief Executive, Mr. Abubakar Mohammed Gana, recounted some reforms introduced by the commission for effective testing of students.
He said the council developed an intractable, robust, secure and user-friendly corporate website, a full-scale biometric capturing of candidates at examination centres, procurement of additional 20 pick-up Hilux Vans for examination logistics and full payment of Duty Tour Allowance to staff among others.
Gana noted that NECO has enjoyed the full support and co-operation of DSS through the provision of covert operations which had helped in reducing incidence of examination malpractice.
He opined that “the world is experiencing rapid changes resulting from rapid development; these changes revolve around two major phenomena of emerging Technology and Globalization”. According to him, while these two phenomena have their advantages, they also come with disadvantages, especially when abused resulting in the scourge of examination malpractice assuming a global dimension.
The Acting Registrar also sought for the collaboration of DSS in building an intractable open and secure filing system for the Council to prevent possible incidence of tempering with staff records, especially in the face of the on-going Staff Certificate verification exercise.
Gana appealed to the Director-General to ensure that fraudsters who attempt to compromise NECO examinations are not only arrested and investigated, but prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others.
