National Examination Council scraps scratch cards usage

National Examination Council (NECO) has stopped the use of scratch cards for the conduct of its Senior Secondary School Examinations. This was affirmed by the Chairman of the NECO Board, Abubakar Saddiq on Friday during the commissioning and unveiling of biometric machines and 20 Toyota Hilux vans bought by the agency in Minna State.

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The Chairman of made it known that 8,000 biometric machines have been acquired for registration of candidates during the conduct of its examinations. He stated that the era of scratch cards for NECO examinations registration is now a thing of the past. Students are now to register online and would be given code to complete their registration.

Students’ biometrics would be captured as they get registered; each school being on a particular biometric data capturing machine would make it impossible for impersonation of candidates during its examination.

The biometric device due to the fact that it had captured the data of every registered candidate would provide the platform for NECO to have the information on every candidate. This would make it impossible for any form of abnormal representation.

The acting Registrar of National Examination Council (NECO), Abubakar Gana, said the equipment was acquired to improve operations in the area of logistics and overall security during their exams. The NECO Boss pinpointed that the body had registered over 51,000 candidates for each of their examinations but had not been able to stop malpractices.

The acting Registrar of the examination body noted that it cost its agency N500 million and N327.8 million to procure the biometric machines and 20 Toyota Hilux Van respectively. Each vehicle was bought for N16,390,000 while a unit of each biometric machine cost N62,500.

This will be the Agency’s first time to use biometric devices in carrying out their Senior School Certificate Examinations.