The Registrar and Chief Executive, National Examination Council, Prof. Promise Okpala, on Wednesday announced the release of the 2010 November/December Senior Secondary School Examinations results.

But he, however, dropped a bombshell when he said that 80 per cent of the 256, 827 candidates that sat for the examination failed English Language.

Okpala said this while announcing the NECO results at a crowded press conference in Minna on Wednesday.

He said 51,781 representing 20.161 per cent obtained credit passes in English Language

But he added that 87,508 candidates or 34 per cent of the candidates obtained credit passes in Mathematics.

“Only 51,781 candidates obtained credit passes in English Language which represented 20.161 per cent while 87,508 candidates got credit passes in Mathematics representing 34 per cent,” he said.

In similar examination in 2009, 98 per cent of the 234,682 candidates failed to obtain five credits in five subjects including English and Mathematics.

The NECO boss stated then that only 4,223 of the 234,682 candidates that sat for the November/December SSCE in 2009 got five credits, including English and Mathematics.

But with this year’s dismal performance, 80 per cent of the candid ates that sat for the examination would not be able to participate in the matriculation examination scheduled to hold in June.

This is because credit passes in the two subjects are compulsory admission requirements to universities in the country.

Apart from the poor performance, Okpala also said that Rivers, Imo and Enugu states recorded the highest examination malpractices in the of 2010 November/December SSCE examinations.

He added that a strange development was also recorded as more failures and malpractices were recorded in Igbo Language, one of the nations’ indigenous languages.

He said out of the 18,019 candidates that registered for Igbo language, only 12,958 sat for the subject, while 1,211 of the Igbo Language results were cancelled due to examinations malpractices.

Okpala, who described the results as “discouraging” said, that out of the 492 candidates that sat for French Language, none obtained a credit pass, adding that History and Physics also recorded a dismal performance.