The Federal Government on Saturday disclosed that a total of 76,855 candidates enrolled for the 2021 Common Entrance Examinations into unity schools across the country.
Only 3,000 admission spaces are available.
The government also disclosed its intention to expand the carrying capacity of the schools to 30,000 students from the current 26,000 students.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Sunday Echono; and the Acting Registrar, National Examinations Council, John Ogborodi, disclosed these while monitoring the 2021 Common Entrance Examinations conducted by NECO in some schools in Abuja on Saturday.
“Last year, the government increased carrying capacity to 26,000 by creating more unity schools to accommodate students who wished to attend new schools and there are plans to establish new ones to bring the carrying capacity to 30,000,” Echono said.
He added that the government is concerned about persistent attacks on schools and abduction of students and has taken steps to beef up security around the colleges.
He said, “We know that there are security challenges across the federation but we are working assiduously to address them.
“Government has been kind to the sector and the National Assembly has continued to appropriate funds for us to provide security infrastructure in our schools.
“So, the federal schools are actually more secured than most others. On the strength of that, we want parents to allow their children to enrol for the schools; let them know this country and meet other people.”
Ogborodi, on his part, disclosed that 76,855 candidates enrolled for the examinations in the 417 centres nationwide.
“This year we had a total number of 76,855 candidates enrolled for the examinations and the schools at the moment will only take in 3,000 candidates due to limited spaces,” he said.
Statistics provided by the board which gave details on candidates that sat for the examination revealed that Lagos had the highest number of candidates with 21,423 candidates followed by FCT, 8674 candidates, Anambra 5,738 and Zamfara has 4,865 while Taraba has the least registered number of candidates with 113.
The data released also showed that the number of girls that registered for the examination was 39,555 while a total of 37,300 male candidates registered for the examination.
