‘Why Many 2024 WAEC, NECO Candidates May Not Gain Admission This Year’

It has been projected that some candidates who sat for the 2024 National Examination Council (NECO) and West African Examination Council (WAEC) examination may not gain admission this year.

According to the Executive Secretary of the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), Dr Iyela Ajayi, who made the projection on Tuesday, the candidates may not secure admission because they failed mathematics and English language, which are mandatory for their admission process.

Dr. Ajayi made the submission in Calabar during his address at a five-day capacity-building workshop for selected English language and mathematics teachers within the South-South Geo-Political Zone.

He said the 2024 NECO result showed that about 61 per cent of the candidates had five credits or above, including mathematics and English language, while about 40 per cent failed to secure a credit in both core subjects.

Similarly, he stated that in the 2024 West African Examination Council (WAEC) examination, about 28 per cent of candidates failed to credit English Language and Mathematics, thus narrowing their chances of securing admission into tertiary institutions.

While emphasizing the continuous training of teachers as the backbone of the education sector, the NSSEC Executive Secretary pointed out that Nigeria currently has a teacher problem in terms of both quantity and quality.

“There is no doubt that there is a teacher problem in Nigeria in terms of quality and quantity; this is why, as a commission, we emphasized the training and retraining of teachers, especially in the two core subjects.

“Teachers are the backbone of any educational system, so if you neglect the training and motivation of teachers, you have neglected education, which is counterproductive.

“In the next five days, we will help to deepen the pedagogical knowledge of teachers, help them develop assessment skills, and build a collaborative network,” he said.