Barely a month after the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman dusted off what has been described as a retrogressive education policy to deny young brilliant Nigerians who are below the age of 18 years the opportunity for university education, Ejiofor Alike reports that the minister has extended this long-abandoned policy to prospective candidates for NECO and WAEC to force students below 18 out of secondary schools and create more out-of-school children in the country
Why has President Bola Tinubu not stopped the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman from implementing a long-abandoned and outdated education policy, which many believe will destroy the education of a generation of young Nigerians and create many out-of-school children?
This is the question agitating the minds of students, parents and other Nigerians who have watched with trepidation as the 70-year-old minister insisted on the implementation of the outdated 6-3-3-4 policy on education introduced when he was barely 30 years old.
This is a policy the then President Goodluck Jonathan had at a Presidential Stakeholder's Summit, at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, in October 2010 passed a vote-of-no confidence on, saying that it had failed to provide the solutions to the Nigerian education system.
Jonathan also urged all those behind the introduction of the policy to apologise to Nigerians.
But since his assumption of office, Mamman has shown curious interest to dust off the policy to deny students below the age of 18 years the opportunity of writing WAEC, NECO and JAMB.
In what seems like a well-orchestrated plot, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund, Senator Muntari Dandutse, also aligned with the minister, promising that his committee would come up with a legislation to support 18 years as entry limit for admission into tertiary institutions.
Even the clarification by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Senator Adeyemi Adaramodu, that minimum age requirement would only be implemented through the passage of a legislation, could not stop the minister.
Mamman did not wait for any bill before he hurriedly rammed his obnoxious policy down the throats of all the stakeholders in the education sector at the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) 2024 policy meeting in July this year.
In what was viewed as his sinister move to frustrate the education of young admission seekers, who had already sat for the 2024 UTME and were awaiting their results, the minister had initially told the stakeholders that the policy would take effect from 2024.
It took the shouts of "no, no" from the crowd of education stakeholders for him to give one year of grace for the policy to take effect from 2025.
Curiously, the President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, who had never raised the issue of age limit of admission seekers as part of the challenges of the education sector or as one of the grievances of the union, had quickly thrown his weight behind the policy due to his open disdain for the rise in the number of private universities.
Despite the widespread condemnations that trailed the age limit policy for university admission, the minister last Sunday pushed his agenda further by declaring that WAEC, which administers the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and NECO, which organises the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) would no longer allow students below 18 years to be eligible for the two examinations.
In many advanced countries, admission into universities is based on the academic achievements of the students and their capacities to cope as undergraduates, and not on backward age limits.
Millions of young Nigerians below the age of 18 have developed the physical, emotional and mental capacity to withstand the rigours of academic studies.
In 21st Century when children below 18, like the 17-year-old Spanish footballer, Lamine Yamal and others, have brought fame to their countries through sports and academics, Nigeria's minister is dragging their education backwards with an outdated policy long-abandoned by successive administrations.
Early this year, a 17-year-old Nigerian and member of the Class of 2023 of The Ambassadors College, Ota, Ogun State, Master Oluwafemi Ositade, secured 14 scholarships worth $3.5 million to multiple Ivy League universities in the United States, including Harvard, as well as other top-notch universities in Canada and Qatar.
Reacting to the minister's policy, a senior lecturer at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), who did not want his name in print, told THISDAY that: "The minister has a hidden agenda. Why did he not adopt the 18 years age limit for admission at the Baze University, Abuja, where he was the Vice Chancellor? He is obviously one of the few conservatives discreetly working to bring the educationally-advantaged parts of the country down to the same level of educational disadvantage with the educationally-less advantaged parts. When students waste two or three years at home to attain the age of 18 before writing WAEC, NECO and JAMB examinations, many of them won't continue their education and that is his agenda," the lecturer alleged.
He argued that the likes of the minister have no business supervising the education ministry in a modern age, adding that he is a distraction to the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu.
In his reaction, the Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUA), Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), also condemned the age limit policy for WAEC, NECO and JAMB, saying: "You don't just go out as a Minister of Education to direct universities against the university's autonomy as to who to admit or who not to admit. The university must decide to exercise its discretion and you can't take that discretion from them."
On his part, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, in a statement, described the age-limit policy as archaic, adding that it "belongs in the Stone Ages."
"To be clear, the Nigerian Constitution puts education in the concurrent list of schedules, in which the sub-national government enjoys more roles above the federal government," he said.
Atiku, who further stated that "it is extra-constitutional for the federal government to legislate on education like a decree," added that the best global standard is to allow the sub-national governments to make respective laws or rules on education.
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Also reacting, the National President of the Congress of University Academics (CONUA), ASUU's rival body, Dr. Niyi Sunmonu, also rejected the 18 years age limit for university admission and recommended 17 years.
In an interview with a national newspaper, the Secretary General of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Dr. Mike Ene, said it would negatively affect the education sector.
When he was reminded that the minister was talking about the maturity of the students, Ene noted that the situation has changed in today's world.
He said: "We were asked to touch our ears and be up to six in those days. Now, both parents have to work to fend for their families and that is why people take their wards to school early."
Similarly, the Deputy National President of National Parents/ Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), Chief Adeolu Ogunbanjo, also vowed that the body would challenge the policy in court.
"We have spoken to some lawyers on the matter; they said we should just be patient for the year 2025 to roll in. Around March next year, before WAEC and others start to conduct the SSCE, we will sue the government if they refuse to drop the policy. We will go to court because the minister wants to draw education back in the country," he was quoted as saying.
Will President Tinubu and the National Assembly wait for the education of young Nigerians to be truncated before halting the implementation of this sinister agenda?
