Federal Government has denied scrapping the National Examinations Council (NECO) and Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The denial is an apparent backpedalling following the opposition that greeted the move, which Presidency officials disclosed to newsmen. Minister of State for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, who made the denial yesterday when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Education, described the purported scrapping of NECO and UTME as a rumour.
His words: “I don’t know where they got the information that government wanted to scrap NECO. Government as at no time scrapped NECO and UTME. “Even if the government has to scrap any of these agencies, it has to give reasons for its action. No position has been taken.
It is the handiwork of mischievous people who wanted to pitch the government against the people. “Even if government has to scrap NECO or UTME, government has to write the National Assembly to repeal the laws that established them.
I don’t know where the rumours are coming from.” With those words, the minister, Mr. Wike soothed frayed nerves of Nigerians, staff of the two exam bodies and members of the Senate Committee on Education. He was reacting to queries from the Senator Uche Chukwumerije-led Education Committee over reports that the Federal Government had concluded plans to scrap NECO and UMTE.
In his submissions, Wike said although, the Professor Stephen Orosanye Committee, set up to look into the cases of overlap of agencies, had recommended the scrapping of NECO and JAMB, the government was still in the process of taking a final decision on the recommendation.
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