The Honourable Minister of State for Education, Prof Suwaiba Said Ahmad, on Saturday inspected some common entrance examinations centres in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
She was accompanied by the Registrar and Chief Executive of the National Examinations Council (NECO), Ibrahim Dantani Wushishi, and other top government officials.
Among the schools she visited included Model Secondary School, Maitama and Government Secondary School, Tudunwada, Abuja
Expressing satisfaction with the conduct of the examination, she disclosed that about 64,000 students sat for the examination into the unity schools.
She said "The exam started on time and the students are very orderly. The invigilators are also on ground. So I'm happy with what I've seen.
"What I'm saying is that I'm happy that Nigerians are happy with our unity schools because of the number of students that are taking part in this common entrance examination.
"As I mentioned earlier, we have about 64,000 students sitting for this exams, which means parents are still vying for the Federal unity colleges.
"We are doing good, and that's why parents are happy with us and allowing their students to register for this examination so that they can be part of the unity schools." she said
Asked if she noticed any challenge during the inspection, the Minister said "We have gone around together with you. I'm sure you have seen, just like I have seen that the exams is going smoothly. And for now, up to now, I have not seen a single challenge."
On her message to Nigerians, she said "And what I will say for Nigerians is we are happy with the conduct of the examination, and we are hoping that even for our senior secondary school examination, SSSCE, WAEC and NECO, we will see an improvement, where exams will be conducted on time and everything will go smoothly, so that everybody will be happy with the way the examination has been conducted."
On his part, the NECO Registrar, Ibrahim Dantani Wushishi, said that the conduct of the examinations was good.
He said "It was good, If not excellent, because we have not seen any challenge, materials are enough and delivered on time. The examination started also on time.
"And having seen the number of candidate that registered, you have heard the Honorable Minister said, Nigerians still believe in the unity schools, because it's one of the edifice for uniting all Nigerians from all over the country."
Speaking on students with disabilities, he said "We used to make sure that for such candidate, like candidate with autism, there are people that assist them, and the blind candidate are provided with braille and other equipment so that they can answer their questions."
He disclosed that the examination is not only written in Nigeria.
"Don't forget also, this is not written only in Nigeria. We have also candidate in Republic of Benin, about 109 candidate registered from Republic of Benin and also Republic of Togo.
"Togo from the registration in the states in Nigeria and FCT, we have Togo being the least registered candidate, with 17 candidates registered in Togo.
"Then we also have about 15,000 plus the highest registration from Lagos state. Then the least is Republic of Togo. So it is not written only in Nigeria, in two countries, Benin Republic and Togo." the Registrar stated.
He said that the candidates in the countries abroad are Nigerian citizens.
Speaking on the admission spaces for this year, Director of Senior Secondary Education in the Federal Ministry of Education, Hajiya Binta Abdulkadir, said "Actually, I cannot say because that depends on the results released from NECO because, you know, the admission is into three components.
"We have the merit, we have state quota, and we have the exigency, which we call the PR on public relations, because most of these children are civil servants children." she said