The National Examination Council  (NECO) has reacted to the mass failure recorded in the recently released result of the 2009 November/December Certificate Examination.

The Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of NECO, Prof. Promise Okpala, who spoke with newsmen in Minna, the Niger State Capital, said inadequate preparation by the  candidates, the tendency to focus on one or two  subjects were some of the  factors responsible for the woeful performance of candidates.

Prof Okpala disclosed that most candidates were full-time workers who did not deem it necessary to enrole in continuous education programme, a kind of evening or right programme to prepare adequately for the examination.

He explained that as full-time workers, these candidates did not have enough time to prepare for the examination.

The NECO boss noted that the full-time students amongst them were not certified to be mentally and academically  ready to sit fora  first class- oriented examination such as the one conducted by NECO.

He further stated that most of the candidates were persons who needed only one or two subjects to remedy their academic deficiency, yet they were required by the policy to register for eight or nine subjects.

According to him, most of the time the subjects are English, Mathematics and literature for those of them interested in reading law.

To set subjects, therefore, he stated that the tendency is for them  he concentrated on these choice subjects thereby reflecting poor performance in their over all result.

Chris Oluoh