Lasun Alagbe
The Nigerian education system is very likely to experience some disruption from next year as Education Minister Tahir Mamman has said that students under the age of 18 will not be allowed to sit for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the National Examination Council exam.
He had earlier invoked the rule for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination candidates.
If the Federal Government insists on this, many students who will have completed the SS3 level by May/June next year will not be eligible to be part of WASSCE and NECO because the reality, especially in private schools, is that they are usually between the ages of 15 and 18.
The first question that will arise is how schools and parents will handle the development: whether the culprits/victims have to remain as students when the secondary education has officially been completed.
It will not be too interesting to see how the waiting will be managed, even as others in junior classes, who are coming behind the, are not immune to the age fiasco. The limbo in which the young ones will find themselves may thus becoming a major national issue.
Besides, the West African Examination Council (WAEC), organisers of WASSCE, and NECO are due to have a puzzling scenario from the 2025 as there will be drop in the number of their candidates.
Observers will note some of these contradictions as the minister insists on the policy implementation, even as he notes that the age limit is not a new idea, that it had only been suffering implementation
He revisited the issue while speaking on Channels Television’s “Sunday Politics”, saying it was crucial for advancing to tertiary education.
“For the avoidance of doubt, this is not a new policy; this is a policy that has been there for a long time. Even basically if you compute the number of years pupils, and learners are supposed to be in school, the number you will end up with is 17 and a half – from early child care to primary school to junior secondary school and then senior secondary school. You will end up with 17 and a half by the time they are ready for admission.
“So, we are not coming up with new policy contrary to what some people are saying; we are just simply reminding people of what is existing. In any case, NECO and WAEC, henceforth will not be allowing underage children to write their examinations. In other words, if somebody has not spent the requisite number of years in that particular level of study, WAEC and NECO will not allow them to write the examination.”
The minister went further to give a breakdown of the number of years pupils are expected to spend between child care and senior secondary school. According to him, early care is expected to last for the first five years. Pupils are expected to begin primary one at the age of six, spend six years in primary school and move to junior secondary school at the age of 12, spend three years, before moving to senior secondary school at the age of 15, to spend three more years and leave for university at the age of 18.
