Registrar of the National Examination Council (NECO), Prof. Abdulrashid Garba, explained on Saturday why cut-off marks for the National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE) into unity colleges vary from state to state.
Garba spoke to newsmen in Abuja after he monitored the National Common Entrance interview into Federal Government Colleges, at Government Secondary School, Wuse Zone 3.
Represented by Mr Abdul Mustapha, the Abuja Liaison Officer of NECO, Garba said that it was not actually the score alone that determines whether a child qualifies or not.
“In every state, ranking is done. If you want to admit 6,000 students in a state for instance, then you rank from the score of the first person to where the score of the 6,000th person stops and that becomes the cut-off mark.
“Performances vary from state to state; you hear parents say I am from so and so state and my child scores high but was not admitted but another child from another state was admitted.
“It is so because the cut -off marks for such disadvantaged states are usually lower; there is a clear cut criteria and it is only for the parents to know the criteria. These schools are unity colleges which means you must take along all parts of the country,’’ he said.
The registrar said that every part of Nigeria must be adequately represented in those schools, hence the variance in cut-off marks from state to state.
Garba said that feedback from the states indicated that the interview was going on smoothly, adding that students’ excitement indicated that it was a huge success.
Dr MacJohn Nwaobiala, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, said that the unity colleges had places for about 24,000 but close to 36,000 sat for the interview.
He, however, expressed optimism that those that might not be absorbed in the unity schools still had opportunities in other schools.
“Education is the right of every Nigerian child and government will do everything possible to ensure that we have all these children in schools.
“In terms of quality of teaching, we have better teachers and facilities; secondly the fees in the unity is also low and that explains why lots of parents want their children to attend unity schools.
“The results are expected to be released by NECO to the Federal Ministry of Education on June 17,’’ he said.
Nwaobiala said experts from the ministry and principals of the colleges would undertake a selection and placement exercise between June 21 and June 25.
He said that admitted candidates were to check the status of their admissions both at the various unity colleges and online at www.fmeinterviewtest.comn from June 29.
On April 25, 86,365 students sat for the 2015 common entrance into 104 unity colleges.
