80% job seekers failed NNPC aptitude test

The Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Engr. Austen Oniwon on Monday lamented the dwindling standard of education in Nigeria just as he said 80 percent job seekers failed the corporation’s current recruitment test.



Oniwon, who was represented by the corporation’s Group General Manager (GGM), Group Public Affairs Unit, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, at the grand finale of the 2011 NNPC annual quiz competition in Abuja called for the review of the nation’s education curriculum in order to halt the rot in the sector.

The GMD said: “The recent mass failure of candidates in WAEC and NECO exams nationwide makes the call for an urgent surgical review of our schools system more urgent than envisaged.

“Also our current experience in the ongoing recruitment exercise where candidates with the so-called 2:1 certificates post less than 20 percent score line in some cases has heightened our apprehension about the lack of functionality in our education format. Over dependent on certificates is not the best. Over 80% of the candidates that wrote the NNPC recruitment exams failed,” he added.
He advised students to tailor their careers towards valuable courses.

Oniwon told the competitors to embrace hardwork if they want to work in places like NNPC.
He, however, said “I want to use this opportunity to call for an educational system that is functional and skill-based that can fill the skill gap that Nigeria has recorded.”