Fred Ezeh, Abuja
National Examinations Council (NECO) announced, yesterday, that out of 70, 580 candidates that sat for the 2020 common entrance examination into Federal Government Colleges otherwise known as Unity Colleges, 24, 416 candidates passed scoring a minimum of 66.
It, however, pegged the national cut off at 142.
Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, who received detailed of the result in Abuja, expressed delight with the speed NECO conducted the examination in spite of the setback occasioned by COVID-19 outbreak and #EndSARS protest.
He was informed by NECO officials that 16, 714 candidates were absent for the examination for reasons that could be linked to EndSARS protests.
Adamu was, however, happy that with the establishment of six new federal science and technical colleges across the country which provided 720 new slot, the carrying capacity of the unity colleges has risen to 26,625.
He instructed that admission criteria should follow the due tradition which is 60 percent on merit, 30 percent on states’ representation and 10 percent to cover other sundry considerations such as special need candidates, gender, local community and biological children of the teachers, PTA, SBMC, and old students organisations.