How Adeleke’s Osun Ranks 7th in 2024 NECO but Truly Places 13th

On Tuesday, Ademola Adeleke, Osun State Governor, shared via X the Standard Educational Performance Ranking of States in the 2024 SSCE, which the National Examinations Council (NECO) published.

The document showed Osun State ranked 7th, behind only Lagos, Kano, Oyo, Benue, Ogun and Katsina states.

“Osun has moved from 33rd to 7th in WAEC/NECO rankings nationally,” the governor said.

“Three years later, we have achieved a 71% success rate in national exams, with over 29,000 students securing at least five credits, including Maths and English.”

However, the percentage system NECO employed in the table did not represent the statistics for the number of successful candidates compared to the number of candidates who sat for the exam.

FIJ reviewed the data and found that the ranking relied solely on the number of candidates who scored a minimum of five credits, including Maths and English.

What this meant was that if a state had fielded 200,000 candidates and had only 2,000 (1%) who passed, they would rank higher than a state that fielded 1,999 candidates who all (100%) passed.

With 29,101 candidates who passed, Osun State had the 7th highest number of successful candidates in the country, but when juxtaposed with other states in a comparison that takes into account candidates’ participation, the state’s 70.52% success rate has it in 13th place.

With 83.40%, Abia State had the best performance in the exam, while Imo and Ebonyi states completed the top three.

While Lagos and Kano enjoyed a population advantage to field more candidates and occupy the top two spots for successful candidates, they ranked 9th and 36th, respectively.

FIJ also reviewed the figures by geopolitical zones. The northwest produced the most candidates (362,642), while the southeast featured the lowest number of candidates (107,275).

However, while only 48.01% of the northwestern candidates hit the passing requirement, the southeast had a 72.23% success rate, making the southeast the best-performing zone, and the northwest the worst-performing zone.

While Osun’s 29,101 put the state in 7th for most number of candidates, and in the company of Lagos, Oyo and Ogun states in the top 10 by population, the southwest settles for third best-performing region in the 2024 NECO exam.

Source: FIJ