Students from Ekiti State who sat for the 2016 June/July Senior School Certificate Examination trumped their counterparts in the exam, the newly released results by the National Examination Council showed.

The result was announced on Friday by Charles Uwakwe, NECO Registrar. The exams body said Edo State came second while Abia and Kogi States occupied the third place.

“An analysis of the result across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory indicated that Ekiti State topped all others with 96.485 of its candidates that sat for the examination coming out victorious,” Mr. Uwakwe said. “Edo state was second with 96.31% while Abias and Kogi were joint third,” the Registrar said.” This year’s results also showed that 88.51 per cent of the overall candidates had five credits in English and Mathematics, marking a one per cent improvement in the overall performance of candidates over 2015 results.

Mr. Uwakwe said the 88.51 per cent (905, 011) had credits in the exam out of a total 1, 022, 474 candidates from Nigeria and other countries. About 84.54 per cent of the candidates scored credit pass and above in English Language and 80.16 per cent obtained credit pass and above in Mathematics, Mr. Uwakwe said. Mr. Uwakwe said NECO detect exam malpractices in about 194 centers, while 14 schools have been deregistered for similar offences.

Mr. Uwakwe said the improvement in this year’s results showed that his predecessors’ efforts have now started yielding good outcome, and promised to improve the current standards. “I want to solicit for support from all our stakeholders.

NECO should be seen as a Nigerian baby that requires the care and support of all to enable her attain that first class international status,” Mr. Uwakwe said. “We are working hard to ensure NECO makes her mark in the global assessment industry.”

Mr. Uwakwe urged candidates who sat for the exam to check their results on NECO website.