National Executive Council (NECO) has taken delivery of 70 operational vehicles and multi-million naira scanning facilities from the Federal Government for the purposes of boosting its operations, culminating in an improved examination services.
The Council confirmed that the scanning facility is equipped with the state-of-the-art Optical Mark Reader (OMR) technology, a cutting-edge software introduced to ensure efficient grading of students and candidates in its various examinations.
NECO, in a statement, on Saturday, noted that the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, inaugurated the projects including NECO’s driver’s pool, block of three classrooms for senior secondary component of NECO staff school, and data centre.
Prof. Mamman, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. David Andrew Adejo, applauded the Registrar of NECO, Prof. Dantani Wushishi, for the innovative measures introduced to strengthen the credibility of assessment process, adding that the projects were critical to effective functioning and realization of the mandate of the Council.
He said the purchase of the logistic vehicles for ease of transportation examination materials would substantially address the challenge of leakage of examination question papers as witnessed in the past.
The NECO Registrar, Prof. Wushishi, in his remarks, expressed commitment to providing quality assessment and ensuring the integrity of the nation’s secondary school examinations.
He explained that logistic vehicles were crucial component of the examination infrastructure, serving as a dedicated fleet of vehicles designed specifically for the transportation of essential examination materials, such as question papers and answer booklets.
He confirmed that the vehicles were equipped with stringent security measures, making them an integral part of maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of the examination process.
He said: “The primary function of these vehicles is to ensure the security and timely delivery of examination materials to numerous examination centres, whether they are located in urban areas or remote regions. This includes not only the distribution of papers but also the collection of completed answer booklets for subsequent processing.”
Wushishi who reeled out various achievements of his administration in the last two and half years, said there is now timely release of results of all NECO examination and robust welfare package for staff of the Council.
The NECO boss lamented that, for more than 15 years, the Council never received any appropriation for capital projects, disclosing however, that the National Assembly has now appropriated for NECO to construct seven additional state offices in Nasarawa, Rivers, Lagos, Sokoto, Taraha, Jigawa, and Abia states.
Meanwhile, more than 70 staffers of the Council received various categories of awards during the 2023 annual productivity award ceremony as part of the Council’s reward system.
