ByWole Mosadomi
Minna — National Examinations Council, NECO, has pledged that it will not lower its standard in a bid to be patronised by eligible students.

Registrar/Executive of the Council, Professor Promise Okpala who made this known while answering questions from reporters in Minna, capital of Niger State also denied that there was rivalry between NECO and the National Business and Technical Examination Board, NABTEB, as both examination bodies like others were championing the same cause of raising standard of education in the country.

Okpala however, said that NECO had become more acceptable by students and higher institutions within and outside the country because of its high standard and zero tolerance for examination fraud.

He pointed out that the problems of examination leakage, impersonation, certificate racketeering among others have been reduced to the barest minimum,thereby making it easy for the certificate to be generally acceptable.

Okpala attributed the modest achievements made by the council in that regard to the uncompromising attitude of staff towards conducting credible examinations without lowering standards to induce popularity.