The National Examinations Council (NECO) has sought for collaboration with the Department of State Security Services (DSS) to check malpractice in the conduct of the council examination.
Chairman, governing board of NECO, Dr. Abubakar Saddique, who led the acting registrar and other management team on a courtesy visit to the Director-General of DSS in Abuja, said such collabortion would ensure the credibility of the council examination
This was contained in statement signed by NECO’s Head, Information and Public Relations Officer Azeez Sani, and made available to Blueprint Thursday.
Dr. Saddique explained that the council has put in place measures aimed at checking
Examination malpractice, but noted that without 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, in his remarks,
enumerated some reforms introduced under his leadership in the council to include the
development of an intractable, robust, secure and user-friendly corporate website, introduction of full-scale biometric capturing of candidates at examination centres, procurement of additiona l20 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 said that the world is experiencing rapid changes resulting from rapid development,
And 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 ongoing staff certificate and 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 deterrent
to others.
The Director-General of DSS, Mr.Yusuf Bichi, in his address, pledged the continued support of his department in ensuring the credibility of NECO examinations.
