The National Examinations Council (NECO) was established in April 1999 to address agitations for a national examination outfit that would be responsive to the Nigerian needs and demands as well as cope with the annually increasing number of secondary school candidates to take Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) nationwide. Series of panels had earlier been set up to address the issues before this vital decision was taken.
The report of the Osiyale taskforce, led to the establishment of National Board for Educational Measurement (NBEM) and the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) in 1992, through the enabling decrees 69 and 70 establishing NBEM and NABTEB respectively, which were promulgated in 1993. The National Board for Educational Measurement (NBEM) took charge of conducting the National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE) for admission of candidates into the Federal Unity Colleges (FUC’s) and the Suleja Academy.
NBEM was also charged with the responsibility of conducting the Junior School Certificate Examination (JSCE) for Federal Unity Colleges and other allied institutions that were hitherto conducted by WAEC. The National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) took charge of conducting business, technical and trade examinations that were also hitherto conducted by WAEC and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) of London and the City & Guilds of London Institute. Consequently, the workload of WAEC was drastically reduced.
The vision 2020 was set up by the Federal Government with a committee on review of the Nigeria’s Education system. Both the Etsu Nupe panel and the vision 2020 committee observed that in spite of the drastic reduction in its workload, WAEC’s challenges still persisted and therefore recommended the establishment of an indigenous examination body parallel to WAEC as Nigeria’s home-grown alternative examination body. The harmonized report of the two committees was published in January 1998. The published report was presented at the 46 th meeting of the National Council on Education (NCE) held at Abeokuta Ogun state in March 1999, where a resolution to upgrade the National Board for Educational Measurement (NBEM) into a full-scale national examination outfit of the same standard as WAEC was passed.
A policy to create the National Examinations Council (NECO) was formulated. Consequently, NBEM became the nucleus of NECO. NBEM’s capacity was built by employing additional qualified personnel, acquiring more equipment and facilities and upgrading the existing ones. NBEM was therefore made stronger and its capacity was upgraded and enhanced to meet international standards. NBEM was then transformed to become National Examinations Council (NECO). NECO then commenced its maiden Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) in June/July 2000, with resounding success. NECO also successfully continued to discharge all the mandates of NBEM in addition to the conduct of the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) without prejudice to the existing functions and powers of WAEC. The enabling decree 33 of 1999 establishing the National Examinations Council (NECO) became an act of parliament cited as the “National Examinations Council (NECO) (establishment) act 2002.
National Examinations Council (NECO)
Km 8, Bida Road,
P.M.B 159, Minna,
Nigeria.