No fewer than 1,367,210 candidates are currently taking the 2025 Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination across the country, using dual mode of Computer Based Testing (CBT) and Paper, Pencil Testing (PPT).

Out of the 1,367,210 candidates, 685,551 are male while over 681,300 are female.

Kano state is listed among the highest number of registered candidates with more than 137,000 enrolment, while Kebbi had the least, just above 5,000.

NECO Registrar, Prof. Ibrahim Dantani Wushishi reeled out the figures, while monitoring the conduct of the examination at a pilot CBT centre, SASCON International School, Maitama, Abuja on Tuesday.

The examination marks the first time NECO is exploring the use of CBT to conduct the O-level examination in selected centres in Nigeria.

Recall that the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa recently mandated NECO and WAEC to begin the conduct of their examinations, using Computer Based Testing (CBT) mode by 2026.

To this end, NECO deployed some already established schools in the FCT in its pilot phase.

Asked to explain how feasible CBT is to conducting examination at the post- basic level, Wushishi said, “NECO is ready as a professional body to conduct examinations using any medium.

“We may have challenges of infrastructure, that is obvious, but then that will not bog us down not to do it.

“There are facilities that will give us the opportunity to conduct CBT and we are good to go for that. We are all aware that there are certain difficult terrains across the countries where we will not be able to meet up with that, except there are exceptional infrastructures to give us the opportunity to do that.

“But by and large, we are very, very much ready to do that as a professional body. Provisional infrastructures, we are calling for government at the state level to speed up making provision for CBT infrastructures in their states.

“We highly support the process. Because we believe the process will reduce a lot of issues that has to do with examination malpractice and improve the quality of the examination and consequently, the results and certificates.

“We are very happy that the results and certificates are recognized globally and we need to also do more in order to reach out across the world on our certificates and results. So NECO is fully ready as far as that is concerned.

“For this year, a total of 1,367,210 candidates registered for SSCE, the highest figure so far. Of these, 685,551 are male and over 681,300 are female. Kano State had the highest number of registered candidates with more than 137,000, while Kebbi had the least, just above 5,000.

“The lowest number of candidates was the Nigerian International School in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which registered eight students”.

The Education Minister, Alausa who monitored the exercise at SASCON too, hinted that to make the process hitch free candidates might need to take the examination outside their immediate school facility.

He said: “WAEC and NECO exams are school-based exams being conducted at their schools. No, we will move away from that.

“It is going to be like (the way) JAMB exams are being conducted at CBT centres. We have thousands of CBT centres across the nation.

“Those are the centers that we are going to use. It’s not a case that students do not have the facilities. Schools do have the facilities.

“We have enough people. We also have to expand the value chain of these CBT centres. They should not just be to service JAMB alone.

“They should be able to service WAEC and NECO. The proprietors of these businesses, the owners of these businesses, have invested billions of Naira to set up these CBT centres. So we also have to help develop a new value chain in our economy.

“They will create jobs. You see a lot of computer, hardware, and software. And more importantly, we have entrepreneurs in Nigeria that are creating, developing these solutions. These are homegrown solutions. We should all be proud. Today, we should all stand tall and be proud of what we utilize.

“These are the kinds of opportunities that President Bola Tinubu is unleashing in every sector of this economy.”

Alausa further commended NECO for its preparedness to fully transition to CBT, noting that the pilot was a demonstration of capacity and commitment to reform.

“This is the first in the history of NECO, which is conducting its annual O-Level Certificate exams for SS3 students. This is a pilot that we pushed to have, and I must tell you, I was very impressed with what I saw. I have to commend the Registrar of NECO for the hard work that he and his team have deployed to get us to this stage, because when we decided that we’re going to go CBT, everybody thought this was an insurmountable task, but today, we’ve seen that this is a process, this is a transition that is possible.

“We just have to work hard to get there. We cannot continue with this madness of exams practice, our exams being caught with cheating, leaked questions, both WAEC and NECO. If we allow this to continue, it will destroy the capacity of our youth, of our children.”

He also disclosed a phased rollout of CBT format across all school exams starting with objective questions this year.

“I’m a very happy person today that NECO has transited to CBT from paper-based. By November of this year, both NECO and WAEC objective exams will be full CBT.

“By next year, 2026, all the essays and objective exams will be CBT. NECO and WAEC will be joining the league of JAMB. We are making significant progress,” he added. (Daily Independent)