As the National Examinations Council marks 25 years, Kuni Tyessi writes that its chosen theme for the silver jubilee, ‘Educational Assessment in a Changing World,’ goes beyond Nigeria to capture innovations, seek solutions to present challenges and create opportunities for the African continent.
When the National Examinations Council (NECO) was established in 1999, Nigeria needed an indigenous body to conduct senior secondary examinations and reduce the pressure on a single examining body. Twenty-five years later, NECO has grown into one of Africa’s largest assessment agencies, administering exams to over 1.5 million candidates annually and shaping how educational assessment responds to a rapidly changing continent.
The theme, “Educational Assessment in a Changing World: Innovations, Challenges, and Opportunities for Africa” is more than a slogan. It is the reality confronting NECO as it balances scale, credibility, and technology in a system serving a young, digital-first population.
The theme frames NECO’s anniversary not just as a celebration of Nigeria’s second-largest examination body, but as a moment to examine how large-scale assessment can evolve across Africa in response to technology, rising candidate numbers, and shifting learning needs.
