Only about 30,000 candidates out of the 92,591 that took the 2020 National Common Entrance Examination across the country would be offered admission in its 104 Colleges, the Federal Government has said.

The government explained that the carrying capacity of the institutions was only 30,000, a development that would frustrate the quest of over 60,000 others who took the examination.

The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, and Permanent Secretary, Sonny Echono, stated these in Abuja while monitoring the conduct of the examination.

They were accompanied by the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of National Examination Council, Prof. Godwill Obioma.

The minister said only about 30,000 out of the 92,591 candidates might be  offered admission, representing a ratio of about one out of three candidates.

Adamu said that the examination results would be released as quickly as possible to enable the successful candidates to prepare for resumption early next year.

Echono said despite COVID-19 pandemic that hindered most activities, more than 92,000 candidates registered for the examination as against the 75,000 candidates who took it in 2019.

He said, “We are now moving towards 30,000. We used to hover around 25,000 but we have the new additions; we are talking about almost one in three of those who are applying that will get space because we are talking of about 92,000 candidates and 30,000 carrying capacity. The ratio is about one in three for this year.”

By Friday Olokor