The Federal Government is scrapping the National
Examinations Council, NECO, and the National Poverty
Eradication Programme, NAPEP among other government
agencies. It is also divesting the Joint Admissions and
Matriculations Board of powers to conduct examinations into
tertiary institutions in the country.
Some candidates during Unified Tertiary Matriculation
Examinations
The government is taking the decision in order to streamline
agencies of government and reduce the cost of governance.
The decision, Vanguard gathered is part of the
recommendations of the Steve Oronsaye Panel Report on the
reform of government agencies and ministries.
The Oronsaye Committee Recommendations
Mr Oronsaye who was the former Head of the Civil Service of
the Federation recommended the abolition of 38 agencies,
merger of 52 and reversal of 14 to departments in ministries.
According to the white paper, which was drafted by a
committee headed by the Attorney General of the Federation,
Mohammed Adoke, the Joint Admission and Matriculations
Board would be divested of the powers to conduct
matriculation examinations into tertiary institutions while
universities would be allowed to conduct their entrance
examinations to students.
Although the JAMB would not be scrapped, it would be a mere
administrative structure that would set standard for minimum
requirements on how the various universities would conduct
entrance examinations.
JAMB to be re-modelled
JAMB will be modelled along same line with the body in the
United States of America which sets standards for
admissions into institutions of higher learning.
Other decisions taken by government on the Oronsaye
committee include the scrapping of the National Examinations
Council, NECO, the National Poverty Eradication Programme,
NAPEP, and the National Complaints commission.
The report seen by Vanguard, recommended that the
functions of NECO would be assumed by the West African
Examinations Council, WAEC, which will also take over the
structures of NECO nationwide.
In order to make up for the deluge of students who sit for the
external examinations of Neco, WAEC would be expected to
conduct two external examinations, one in January and
another in November for external students while still running
its internal examination programmes for secondary school
students.
Under the proposal, the National Poverty Eradication
Programme would be replaced by an agency called National
Agency for Job Creation and Empowerment (NAJCE) while the
National Complaints Commission will be merged with the
National Human Rights Commission.
The Government rejected the recommendation urgung the
scrapping of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and the
Ministry of Police Affairs, saying it would be counter
productive.
A member of the committee told Vanguard that the decision
was preparatory to government’s plans to overhaul major
sectors in the country.
“JAMB will be divested of the admission provision. It will no
longer conduct examinations but will be a clearing house. Every
school will admit its students.
“Neco will be scrapped and its infrastructure will be merged
with that of the West African Examination Council (waec).
“Universities will be allowed to set their standards but jamb will
set the minimum standard for admission into all tertiary
institutions” the source said.
Several efforts to reach the Special Adviser to the President
on Media and Publicity failed as he did not pick his phones as at
the time of this report.
It will be recalled that the Oronsaye report stated that the
average cost of governance in Nigeria is believed to rank
among the highest in the world.
Oronsaye said in his report that “there are 541 Government
Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies (statutory and non-
statutory).
“Going by the recommendations of the Committee, the figure
of statutory agencies is being proposed for reduction to 161
from the current figure of 263.
“The Committee believes that if the cost of governance must
be brought down, then both the Legislature and Judiciary must
make spirited efforts at reducing their running costs…

Source. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/04/fg-to-scrap-jamb-exam-neco-napep/