The Pacesetter Frontier Magazine

Tag: Examination

  • NECO Releases 2026 SSCE Results, 58.67% Record Five Credits Including English, Mathematics

    NECO Releases 2026 SSCE Results, 58.67% Record Five Credits Including English, Mathematics

    Precious Nwonu, Enugu

    The National Examinations Council has released the results of the 2026 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) Internal, with 58.67 per cent of candidates obtaining at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics.

    The Registrar and Chief Executive of NECO, Professor Dantani Wushishi, announced the results on Thursday at the council’s headquarters in Minna, Niger State.

    Wushishi said 1,378,048 candidates registered for the examination, comprising 682,352 males and 695,696 females.

    According to him, 1,371,992 candidates eventually sat for the examination.

    He disclosed that 1,162,118 candidates, representing 84.70 per cent, obtained five credits and above irrespective of their performance in English Language and Mathematics.

    The examination was conducted across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, as well as six countries outside the country.

    The foreign centres were located in Benin Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Niger Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo and Saudi Arabia.

    The 2026 SSCE Internal was conducted between June 15 and July 23, while the nationwide marking exercise took place from August 17 to September 4.

    Wushishi also announced a significant decline in examination malpractice cases recorded during the exercise.

    He said 1,406 candidates were involved in various forms of examination malpractice in 2026, compared with 3,878 candidates recorded in 2025.

    This represents a 64.74 per cent reduction in the number of candidates involved in malpractice.

    The NECO boss attributed the decline to improved examination procedures, enhanced monitoring and increased collaboration with security agencies and other stakeholders.

    He said the measures were aimed at protecting the integrity and credibility of the examination.

    Wushishi further disclosed that 1,334 candidates with special needs participated in the 2026 examination.

    He said the council remained committed to providing necessary arrangements to promote inclusiveness in its examinations.

    The NECO registrar commended the Federal Government, the education ministers, the council’s governing board, the National Assembly, security agencies, state governments, schools and other stakeholders for their support during the examination process.

    He also praised NECO staff for their commitment to the successful conduct, marking and release of the results.

    Wushishi formally declared the 2026 SSCE Internal results released and directed candidates to access their results through the NECO website using their examination registration numbers.

    He urged candidates to remain committed to their academic pursuits, assuring stakeholders that the council would continue to uphold the credibility, fairness and integrity of its examinations.

  • NECO Questions Sold for N3,000 Before Exams, Eduction Minister Reveals

    NECO Questions Sold for N3,000 Before Exams, Eduction Minister Reveals

    The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has revealed how examination questions were allegedly obtained for N3,000 before the conduct of the National Examinations Council examinations, describing the level of examination malpractice in the country as “mind-boggling.”

    Alausa made the revelation on Thursday at a meeting with the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools and other stakeholders in the education sector, where he warned parents, teachers, proprietors, principals, invigilators and students against practices capable of undermining the integrity of public examinations.

    The minister said examination malpractice had, for years, been tolerated in Nigeria, creating an unfair system in which students who prepared genuinely for examinations were disadvantaged by those who gained access to leaked questions.

    According to him, the situation was particularly dangerous because it could push honest students into malpractice as they sought to compete with candidates who had access to examination materials before the tests.

    Alausa said, “It’s sad. Before she (Minister of State for Education) and I came, the acceptance of examination malpractice, cheating and examination leakages in this country was mind-boggling, and the country accepted it. It was a nightmare,” adding that the “danger was that the good students would also become bad.”

    The minister, while recounting his experience in the fight against examination malpractice, alleged that examination questions had previously been made available for sale before candidates sat for the examinations.

    He said, “The Registrar of NECO at the time had a name. His name was (Ibrahim) Wushishi. You would go to Wushishi… I didn’t know that Wushishi meant going to the dark website.

    “They bought his question for N3,000. That was it. Before the examination. They called him Wushishi and bought the questions for N3,000 before the examination.”

    Alausa also recalled his experience during the 2025 examination period, saying he was regularly sent examination questions allegedly obtained before candidates sat for the papers.

    He said the development forced officials to verify the questions with examination authorities, sometimes confirming that the questions being circulated were actually the ones scheduled for the day.

    He said, “During that examination period, during the hardest time of my life, I was always worried, waking up. I would wake up to her text. She would send questions to me… She would say, ‘I just got this question.’

    “It could be English or Chemistry. I was always waking up with trepidation every morning, doing work. I would send it to the HNO and ask, ‘HNO, is this correct?’ And the answer I got was, ‘Unfortunately, that’s the question we’re doing today.’

    “So, that was a more aggressive intervention because we were seeing the question and confirming from the other side.”

    The minister said the revelations demonstrated that examination malpractice was not simply a student problem, insisting that the wider education ecosystem must take responsibility for curbing the practice.

    He noted that parents, schools, teachers, invigilators and principals all had roles to play in preventing candidates from gaining unfair access to examination materials.

    Alausa said, “You might be in that isolated school, but the school system is also involved. In fact, I don’t blame the students that much. Any child can be bad.

    “But when we have an ecosystem where parents, schools, teachers, invigilators and principals are in full connivance, the students are the smallest players. The people who should put the deterrents in place are the ones involved.”

    He warned that the Federal Government would strengthen measures to protect the integrity of public examinations and ensure that academic qualifications reflected genuine learning and merit.

    The minister said the reforms were part of President Bola Tinubu’s broader efforts to restore standards and reposition Nigeria’s education system.

    He said, “This is a country with the rule of law. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is transforming this country in a way that’s never been transformed before. This is Nigeria’s renaissance that we’re building to be sustainable into the future.”

    He added that the country had for too long tolerated practices that undermined its education system, but said the Tinubu administration was determined to reverse the trend.

    The Minister of State for Education, Prof Suwaiba Ahmad, also called on private school proprietors and other stakeholders to support the reforms, noting that stronger examination controls could initially expose weaknesses in students’ actual preparation.

    Ahmad explained that some students who appeared to perform exceptionally well in internal examinations might have become accustomed to accessing leaked questions ahead of external examinations.

    She said the introduction of serialised examination questions would make it more difficult for candidates to rely on leaked materials, while encouraging genuine preparation.

    The minister urged schools to complete their curricula on schedule and promote consistent study among students, assuring private education stakeholders that the Federal Ministry of Education would continue to engage them during the implementation of the reforms.

    The latest warning comes amid longstanding concerns over examination malpractice in Nigeria, including question-paper leakages, impersonation, collusion and unauthorised assistance to candidates.

    The Federal Government’s renewed emphasis on examination integrity is aimed at ensuring that results from public examinations provide a credible assessment of students’ knowledge and abilities, while protecting candidates who prepare and compete fairly. Punch

  • When Teachers Help Students Cheat: The Silent Collapse of Exam Integrity in South East Schools

    When Teachers Help Students Cheat: The Silent Collapse of Exam Integrity in South East Schools

    By Okafor Sebastine Chukwuebuka

    Recently, through friends and allies, I acquired some electronic devices designed to help curb examination malpractices across schools—both secondary and tertiary institutions. Ironically, the invention of artificial intelligence, which ought to aid learning, has worsened the situation. Some students now snap their question papers, upload them to AI-enabled platforms, and use the answers to write their exams.

    This problem is not limited to a particular school. It exists in almost every school I have recently visited—especially public institutions. During examinations, some staff members go as far as aiding these illegal acts, sometimes using physical and emotional blackmail. I have visited schools in Ebonyi, Enugu, and Anambra States in recent times, and what I witnessed was deeply troubling. Senior lecturers, Heads of Departments, and even proprietors go out of their way to protect students caught in malpractice. In some places, staff are allowed to collect as little as ₦1,000 per student to “look away” during exams. That is the sad reality.

    From the experiences gathered so far, there seems to be a widespread culture of aiding and abetting examination malpractice in educational institutions – particularly in Secondary and Tertiary institutions.

    Suffice it to state that some of the departments of Tertiary institutions are filled with personnel who seem to have lost touch with what academic integrity means. They shield their students under the excuse of: “Hapụ nụ ụmụaka ka ha dee exam [Allow these students to write their exams]; you cannot save Nigeria.” Some institutions go as far as creating Examination Malpractice Marshals, but instruct them never to penalize students. Imagine catching a student using AI to write an exam, confiscating the phone, and still allowing the student to continue without even issuing a new answer script. Consider the message this sends to other students in the hall.

    To make things worse, during one of our recent visits to a university in the South East, a Head of Department in Political Science was caught on camera instructing students to physically attack any invigilator—internal or external—who attempted to collect their phones during exams. That individual is an Associate Professor, and it is disturbing to imagine what he is teaching beyond the classroom.

    In many schools, principals even pay money to handpick invigilators for external exams. Once these compromised invigilators destroy the moral fibre of the students placed under their care, some university lecturers complete the damage by ignoring ethics entirely.

    Thankfully, not all institutions are the same. Godfrey Okoye University and Coal City University have maintained zero tolerance for malpractice. These schools have functional CCTV cameras in their examination halls, well-trained and adequate invigilators, and network-jamming devices that make cheating with mobile phones nearly impossible. Meanwhile, in many public schools, only two invigilators are assigned to monitor over 280 students in a hall where seven students sit in a single row. This makes the malpractice even easier.

    There are also institutions with good leadership but poorly motivated or compromised staff who make genuine reform impossible. Examples include ESUT, IMT, UNN, and FUNAI. These schools show signs of readiness to fight the problem but are still trapped by internal sabotage and negligence.

    This situation contributes greatly to the quality of graduates produced. Many companies today are hesitant to recruit despite the abundance of graduates with excellent results. The truth is, many of these so-called “first-class” and “second-class upper” graduates cannot meet basic workplace expectations because their grades are not a true reflection of their competence.

    It is time to borrow a leaf from our brothers in the South West, who have shown better commitment to discipline and transparency during examinations. If we are truly interested in raising thinkers, creators and honest citizens, we must rise to protect the credibility of our education system—regardless of whose name is involved.