Scrapping second NCEE test is apt

Minister of Education Malam Adamu Adamu recently
announced the cancellation of the second interview
test for the National Common Entrance Examination,
NCEE. A statement by the Federal Ministry of
Education said cancellation of the interview test would
take effect from the 2017/2018 academic year. The
statement said the minister could not establish the
rationale for a second test for NCEE organized by the
National Examinations Council, NECO.
Adamu was quoted as describing the second test as an
unnecessary additional burden on parents and
guardians. He said “the era of multiple examinations
attracting prohibitive fees cannot be accommodated by
the President Buhari-led administration.” This,
according to the minister, “is against the backdrop of
government’s determination to increase access to
education as a platform for breaking the circle of
poverty.” The minister then directed NECO to
strengthen its procedures and instruments for the
administration of all examinations conducted by it with
a view to achieving quality and credible examination
results in the first NCEE test for admitting candidates
into federal unity schools. Malam Adamu also said
multiple examinations do not necessarily translate into
admission of quality pupils into secondary schools.

Minister Adamu also said 2016/2017 academic year
remains sacrosanct as the effective date for the ban
on post-UTME and he advised vice chancellors to
adhere strictly to the policy. It would be recalled that
the minister had in June this year announced the
scrapping of post-UTME during a stakeholders’ meeting
held in Abuja to determine the cut-off mark for
candidates seeking admission into Nigerian tertiary
institutions. NCEE is the achievement test administered
by NECO for candidates seeking admission into Federal
Government Colleges. It is a written test for pupils in
their sixth year of basic education. From its results,
candidates that meet the cut-off marks fixed for each
state of the federation are invited for a second
interview test before final selection into the 109
federal unity colleges.
Just like the scrapped post-UTME, NCEE interview test
is widely seen as a needless duplication of effort for
one admission exercise. Parents take a lot of risks to
travel with their children to write a second test after
having passed and obtained the required cut-off point
in the NCEE. The decision to scrap the second stage
of the common entrance test is therefore apt and
highly commendable. In spite of the second test
proponents’ arguments, experts in educational tests
and measurements assert that it is not the number of
times a candidate is made to write an examination that
really matters. The most important thing, according to
educationists, is the quality of the test items and the
overall credibility of the examination. A single but
credible examination is better than multiple tests that
lack integrity.
Public examinations have become an exploitative
means used especially by private schools to extort
money from parents and guardians. School proprietors
and managers similarly exploit the ignorance of parents
about some educational policies of government to
overstretch the latter, compelling them to register their
children for the NCEE as if it were a requirement for
transition from primary to junior secondary stage of
basic education. The 9-year basic education
programme is free and compulsory in Nigeria. This
means that transition from primary to junior secondary
school requires no examination. The existing NCEE
administered by NECO is exclusively for candidates
interested in seeking admission into any of the federal
unity schools. The choice of writing NCEE is therefore
optional for pupils transiting from primary to junior
secondary school but many parents don’t know this.
While we urge the Federal Ministry of Education to
ensure that respective examination bodies comply with
the ban on second tests, examination bodies should
work hard to improve upon their examination
procedures to meet up with global best practices.
Parents are encouraged to enquire from relevant
agencies including LEAs and State Universal Basic
Education Boards (UBEBs) each time they are asked to
pay for examinations on which they lack adequate
information.