School palava again ..................The workers of the National Examination Council, on Thursday,
appealed to the Federal Government not to scrap the examination body, as
workers were reported to be wondering what their fate will be if the
government eventually implements the plan.
Reports on Wednesday said the Federal Government had decided to
implement the recommendations of the Oronsaye-Panel that listed NECO
among 38 federal agencies that would be scrapped or merged with others.
The Federal Government had not confirmed or denied the planned action
though, but there was palpable tension in NECO on Thursday.
A senior official, who pleaded anonymity because he was not permitted
to speak to the press, told Vanguard there was no wisdom behind the
attempt to scrap NECO.
“Let’s look at it this way: Britain is not up to half the size of
Nigeria and it has about eight examination bodies. How then can Nigeria
have only examination body?
“Secondly, why lump us with the West African Examination Council?
WAEC does not belong to Nigeria, so what does the country stand to gain
by handing over structures of NECO to WAEC?
“Thirdly, how possible is it for WAEC, or any examination body for
that matter, to organise one SSCE in November and organise another one
two months later, when they have not released the result of the one
conducted in November?.
“Again, we should not be in a hurry to forget when Nigerian
candidates suffered untold hardship in the hands of WAEC, which led to
the birth of NECO.