The National Examinations Council (NECO) says over 1.2 million candidates registered for the ongoing 2023 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE).
Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, registrar and chief executive of the council, broke the news on Friday while monitoring the conduct of the exam across schools in Jos, Plateau state.
Wushishi, in a statement signed by Azeez Sani, the council’s spokesperson, said 601,074 of the candidates are male while 584,814 are female.
The NECO registrar expressed satisfaction with the “general conduct of the exam based on reports obtained from across the country”.
He also described this year’s edition of the exam as “the best organised in recent years”.
Wushishi said various measures have been put in place to check examination malpractice. He added that the measures have started yielding positive results.
The NECO registrar visited Airforce Military School, King and Queens Academy, and Emmanuel International College all in Jos for the monitoring exercise.
Wushishi had earlier visited Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa and Bauchi states to assess the conduct of the exam.
This year’s edition of the exam started on July 13. The exercise is scheduled to end on August 11.
In 2022, NECO said about 1,209,703 candidates registered for the exam with 636,327 males and 573,376 females respectively.