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EDUCATION FEATURED STORIES

BREAKING: Many candidates may lose admission as FG fixes entry age to Nigerian universities, others at 18

There is fear that many candidates that sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination this year may lose potential admission as the Federal Government has announced that only those who are 18 years old and above will be admitted to tertiary institutions.

They may, at least, have their admission deferred as the government said the rule would take effect from this year.

Such, and their parents, will hope that the government allow the process run through this year so that there will not be dislocation even in the system.

As ‘Frantalk’ reports, this 18-year directive was given on Thursday by the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, at the ongoing 2024 policy meeting in Abuja.

According to the him, this decision is in line with Nigeria’s law, which prohibits the admission of underage students to tertiary institutions.

He emphasised that no one should recommend anyone less than 18 years old for admission, stressing that this guideline must be strictly followed.

Many stakeholders may, however, worry that the invocation of the age criterion is coming in the middle of a year’s admission process.

This is as a lot of the admission seekers, who are usually younger than being specified, have already prosecuted the process to the point of awaiting admission.

Meanwhile, details of the declaration  and the admission policy for the year are still to come.

 

Categories
EDUCATION

Remi Tinubu advocates Alternative High Schools’ for Nigerian girls

Education is the way to grow as a nation. We know insecurity is there, discouraging girl child education. But we will not be intimidated from giving this generation what they deserve, quality education”.
“Governors should be encouraged to adopt the Alternative High School for Girls. Once UBEC builds one in the State, they should build more. These girls should be given the opportunity to fulfill their dreams. How will they fill on their resume, I went to Second Chance School, people will ask, what did you do?”
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The First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu has applauded the drive by the Federal Ministry of Education to get more teachers for government schools in the country.
She was speaking when the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman and his management team paid her a visit in her office at the State House Abuja on Friday 3rd May.
The First Lady noted that as a teacher herself, it is important to improve on the profession and the practitioners so as to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
“I will join you to champion the drive for more teachers in the country. They are very important to the teaching outcomes we get”.
Senator Oluremi Tinubu commended the Minister for approving the change of name from Second Chance School to Alternative High School for Girls, saying the new name is more dignifying.
“Education is the way to grow as a nation. We know insecurity is there, discouraging girl child education. But we will not be intimidated from giving this generation what they deserve, quality education”.
“Governors should be encouraged to adopt the Alternative High School for Girls. Once UBEC builds one in the State, they should build more. These girls should be given the opportunity to fulfill their dreams. How will they fill on their resume, I went to Second Chance School, people will ask, what did you do?”
The First Lady also called the attention of the Minister to the need for Adult Literacy Schools in the country and also the re-introduction of Technical Colleges to cover for the children who could not get into Tertiary institutions due to poor academic strength.
In his remarks, the Minister, Prof Tahir Mamman explained that his Ministry is introducing Skills Acquisition from primary school level.
“The issue of Out of School Children is getting our due attention. Only about 25% of our youth get into tertiary institutions. We have to see to the others that are just there. We must get them well trained in their chosen skills”.
He stated that the Ministry is prioritizing those who want to study education in Tertiary Institutions.
Prof. Mamman then presented 100 General Scholarships for Female Students and 1000 Bursary Awards for those studying education to the First Lady.
Those on the visit include the Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Tanko Sununu, DG NEPAD, Princess GloriaAkoundo , the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education Mrs didi Walson- Jack and other Directors in the Ministry.
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EDUCATION FEATURED STORIES

Stakeholders hail, knock Mamman over 18 years admission benchmark  

By Funmilayo Adeyemi
During a recent Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) monitoring exercise in Bwari, Abuja, the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman said admission to tertiary institutions will no longer be given to candidates below 18 years.
This directive was sequel to a discovery by the minister and his team, that some candidates in the range of 14 years to 15 years sat for the examination.
According to him, the younger candidates who ought to. be in the controlled space of their parents, were immatured to manage their affairs in vibrant tertiary school environment  and were responsible for some challenges in the higher institutions.
Mamman decried the activities of some parents, some of whom, he said were around the examination premises, for pressuring their underage students to get admissions into tertiary institutions
According to the minister, the 18-year benchmark for admission into higher institutions, was in line with the 6-3-3-4 system of education.
NAN reports that the 6-3-3-4 system of education came into being in 1983 with the primary focus of meeting the educational needs of the citizenry and equipping youths with sellable skills that will make them self reliant.
With the 6-3-3-4 system, a child,  after the kindergarten and nursery education, which are optional, is expected to be admitted to primary school at the age of six and spend six years, also, to acquire primary education.
After completing primary school at age 12; the child is expected to spend three years respectively in Junior and Senior Secondary Schools and complete secondary education by 18 years when he or she would be riped for admission into tertiary institutions.
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In 2006, however, there was a slight modification by the then Minister of Education, Dr Obi Ezekwesili, who introduced a new basic education policy.
Ezekwesili merged the six years of primary education and the three years of junior secondary education as basic education, thereby giving birth to a 9-3-4 system of education.
In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), stakeholders in the education sector expressed divergent views on Mamman’s adoption of 18 years as minimum entry age to tertiary institutions.
While some saw the directive as retrogressive  and attempt to divert attention from the myriad of challenges facing the tertiary education system others argued that it was a welcome development and its  implementation was long overdue to sanitise the schools environment.
NAN reports that shortly after the Minister’s directive, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) expressed its full support to the federal government.
ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, in an interview described the decision as ‘a welcome development”
“We are in full support. It is the right thing. What the minister said is the correct thing.
“The issue of age benchmark is not a new thing. It’s just that regulators have not been doing their work.
“In those days, you could not go to primary school if you were not six years old.
“Then you spend six years and finish at age 12; and then  by the time you get to secondary school you spend six years and then you graduate by 18,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, the National President, National Parent Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), Haruna Danjuma, declared the support of the body fo the federal government’s 18 years age benchmark.
Danjuma told NAN in an interview that the national policy on education is unambiguous
on the age limit and it should be implemented to the latter.
Danjuma blamed parents for not allowing the regulations of 18 years age limit to work, while calling on the federal government to impose strict mechanism for its implementation which should be followed by every stakeholder in the education sector.
“This has been the national policy of education. If you can remember, It is only when you are six years old before you can be enrolled into primary school.
“However, some parents circumvent this, by rushing their children into the university at a very tender age believing that they are so bright.
“They compel their children to sit for common entrance in primary five and write WAEC in SS2 and this occur mostly in some private schools.
Some parents engage in this because of the high financial demands in the private schools without considering the implications on the mental development of their children,” he said.
When asked if the association had taken steps to sensitise its members to the implementation of the policy, Danjuma said every chapter of the association had been communicated on the benefits of adhering to the system.
“We had agreed that every state chapter should educate the parents, both private and public schools, on this education policy, especially at Parent Teachers Association’ meetings.
“We also told School Principals to discourage  any parent who comes to make requests for any inappropriate promotions because the national policy on education in Nigeria should be implemented and obeyed,” he said
A parent, Mr Owede Agbajileke, said 18 years benchmark for admission age into tertiary institutions would help to curtail mental and emotional abuse on students.
Agbajileke encouraged parents, whose children left secondary schools at age 14 to 17 to enroll them in skills acquisition for the period they would be at home before seeking admission into tertiary institutions.
“I am with the government on this issue. I could remember when I was in my 100 level at the university, we had a 15 year-old girl who will always cry whenever discussions touches on her.
“This particular girl is not emotionally prepared for higher education. She may be brilliant but what about her emotional aspect.
“Many of them who are not matured physically and emotionally are often molested by the opposite sex but someone who is emotionally matured and can handle situations will always resist any move by the opposite sex.
“I think we need to go back to the drawing board as a country and look for ways to engage those underage students seeking admission into tertiary institutions,” she said
Corroborating Agbajileke, a student of a Federal University, Chisom Jonah said many students who secured admission into higher institution at the age below 18 years, were not emotionally prepared for the rigours and demands of academics.
Jonah, a student in the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences narrated the ordeal of an underage student when they were in part two.
“In our 200 level, every students in our Faculty, studying, MBBS, Human Physiology and Human Anatomy were, usually, for the first time introduced to cadaveric dissection.
“On that day, when we entered the anatomy lab., a student, the youngest among us, collapsed and fainted upon seeing the dead human being to be used for our training.
“The student was rushed to the school clinic and upon revival, she said she was scared  and overwhelmed upon seeing the cadaver, couple with the smell of formalin.
” Our lecturer on that day underscored the need for students to be matured in age and emotion before seeking admission to university and particularly studying certain courses,” Jonah said.
Contrary to Jonah’s position,  however,, the umbrella body of students in the tertiary institutions – the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) – has rejected the decision by the federal government to benchmark admission age to 18 years.
Speaking with NAN, the National President, of the association, Lucky Emonefe, said there was no proper consultations with relevant stakeholder before the Minister announced the decision.
Emonefe  said the government agencies that have the responsibility to ensure adherence to the laid down laws, including WAEC and JAMB, were not doing enough in enforcing the age requirement.
He said :”If You are not up to  17 years, you ought not to be registered to write SSCE, NECO examination and UTME
“But, we have candidates below 16 years who had been enrolled by JAMB and admitted into higher institutions.We do not know what the minister will do about those already admitted
“We are putting on modalities to meet with the minister to take it up; because we believed that if government want to implement such regulations, there should be proper consultations with relevant stakeholders and student bodies.
“This decision cannot just be implemented immediately because people have enrolled for this year’s UTME already. They have paid JAMB and the essence is to be admitted into the higher institutions” he said.
The former Vice Chancellor, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof. Benjamin Ozumba, said most Nigerian universities pegged their admission age limit at 16 years, noting that this has been on for a long time.
Ozumba argued that if government insisted on the 18 years benchmark, there would be an exponential increase in number of students gaining admission to schools  outside the country,
The don called on the government to address many challenges facing the tertiary education, including poor funding, incessant strike actions and infrastructure decay, rather than creating unnecessary controversy
Dr Lovelyn Anabogwu, Facilitator at the National Teachers Institute(NTI) said 16 years is an ideal age for students to gain admission for  tertiary education because they were already mentally, physically, psychologically and emotionally suitable at the age
She equally submitted that exceptionally brilliant students, who left the secondary school at 15 years could also be considered for admission.
A parent, Mrs Alice Etuka said that in an age of advanced technology, savvy and vibrant youths Nigeria is endowed with,  it is retrogressive for a minister to propagate 18 years benchmark for entry into higher institutions
Etuka noted that technology had helped greatly in  making children to grasp faster because they had many resources to help them understand their studies better.
She, therefore, called on the government to reconsider the age limit and allow entry age into tertiary institutions to be pegged at 16 years.
“Times have changed and curriculum have been improved upon. Nowadays, both parents are working and as such enroll their children in school at a very younger age.
“Topics like addition and subtraction which were learnt in Primary schools in those days, are now being taught in Nursery  and the children are coping.
“Also, children in private schools can read as early as five years, so why do you want to delay their education because of a retrogressive policy?
“I call on the Minister to have a rethink on this pronouncement so that we will not drive our education system and  vibrant youth population backward,” she said.
Another parent, Mrs Ada James-Awodi, said 18 years admission benchmark is undesirable because of many challenges facing the tertiary education system, particularly, cumbersome admission processes in public schools and incessant strike actions.
She argued that many candidates with good O’Level results usually sit for UTME many times before they can secure admission to public tertiary institutions of their choice.
“If a child finished secondary school at age 16 and have to wait for two years more to write UTME and eventually could not meet the cut-off point for admission until after three of more attempts, what happens?t
“If such a child finally gets admission at 21 years, with the incessant strike actions in our schools, such a child may not graduate until, 28 years to 30 years,”.she said
James-Awodi called on the Minister to retract on the backward policy which could lead to Exodus of Nigerian children to foreign lands to seek higher education.
FUNMILAYO ADEYEMI write for the News Agency of Nigeria
Categories
EDUCATION FEATURED STORIES

More anxiety for federal varsities as FG is set to be deducting 40% of their IGR

At a time tertiary and other academic institutions across the country  are crying over poor funding, the Federal Government is set to be taking a major part of the IGR of each federal university.

It has commenced the implementation of an automatic 40 per cent deduction of Internally Generated Revenues of Federal Universities and other partially funded institutions across the country.

‘The Punch’ reports that the auto-deduction policy of gross IGR is in line with the Finance Circular with reference number FMFBNP/OTHERS/IGR/CRF/12/2021 dated December 20, 2021.

The circular limits the annual budgetary expenditure from IGR of the partially funded federal government.

This was contained in a letter dated October 17, 2023, and titled ‘Implementation of 40% automatic deduction from internally generated revenue of partially funded federal government institutions’ by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mrs Oluwatoyin Madein, to the universities and signed by director of Revenue and Investment, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Felix Ore-ofe Ogundairo.

The letter referred to varsities vice-chancellors was assented to by the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun.
Related News

“I am directed to inform you that the Honourable Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy has approved the implementation of a 40% auto deduction from the Gross Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of all Partially Funded Federal Government Institutions in line with the Provision of Section 62 of Finance Act, 2020 with effect from November 2023.

“Agencies/parastatals to not more than 50 per cent of their gross IGR and the remittance of 100 per cent of the remaining 50 per cent to the Sub-recurrent Account. All statutory revenue lines like Tender Fees, Contractor’s Registration Fees, Disposal of Fixed Assets, Rent on Quarters, etc shall be remitted 100 per cent to the Sub-recurrent Account.

“Consequently, all partially funded Agencies/Parastatals must align their budget requirements and ensure total compliance with the provision of Section 62 of Finance Act, 2020 and Finance Circular, 2021,” Ogundairo expressed.

Earlier, the federal government through the Minster of Education, Tahir Mamman, said it was giving varsities full autonomy to explore sources of financing their activities.

-THE PUNCH

Categories
NEWS & LIFE

FG reiterates commitment to address rising illiteracy

As Nigeria joins the rest of the world in commemorating the 2023 International Literacy Day, the Federal Government has reiterated its commitment
towards addressing the scourge of illiteracy in the country.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, disclosed this during a news conference in Abuja on Friday to mark the day.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme for the 2023 commemoration is tagged: “Promoting literacy for a world in transition: Building the foundation for sustainable and peaceful societies”.
The minister said  it was essential to effectively explore the patterns of transformation and adjustment that had characterised education globally as a result of its ever-increasing scope and paradigm.
“Specifically, it awakens our consciousness to the need to continually make required adjustments in our approach to literacy delivery with a view to meeting the current global trends.
“The ministry would continue to leverage on the existing progress and transformation in the development of literacy while setting the stage for lifelong learning of the Nigerian adults and youths.
“We would continue to rethink the fundamental importance of functional literacy as a necessary panacea that will help build resilience and ensure quality, equitable and inclusive education for all,” he said.
Mamman added that eliminating illiteracy from Nigeria is a top priority of the Tinubu-led administration, adding that the ministry would work hard to achieve this.
“We have a new government in place. This government is determined to do things differently to make Nigeria achieve what it has not achieved since independence.
“The matter of illiteracy is one of the top priority of the president which we put forward at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. The President does not want a single Nigerian to remain illiterate .
“Illiteracy is a scourge, a disease and we are not going to allow it to continue. We have the directives of the president and our own personal resolve.
“In days and weeks ahead, we will be engaging the public, we have policies on ground but what has been tye problem is the delivery of those policies. We will not allow any obstacles in our ways from achieving this goals,” he said.
In the same vein, Dr Stephen Onyekwelu, National Programme Officer and Literacy, UNESCO Regional Office, Abuja, said that UNESCO had supported Nigeria in developing the Ministerial Strategics Plan to address illiteracy.
Onyekwelu said it had also supported the country through the spotlight initiative where over 200,000 women and girls have acquired the basic skills of reading and writing and some mainstreamed back to school, while some were provided with skills acquisition.
He added that UNESCO had supported the ministry in reviewing the HIV policy and currently supporting the mass literacy , adult and non-formal education in reviewing the policy guidelines for non-formal education in the country.
While reading the message of the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, he said the world had achieved significant strides in closing the illiteracy gap, adding that UNESCO would continue to support the literacy efforts in countries all over the world.
“In the space of 40 years, significant progress has been made. 3.6 billion people have learned to read and write, raising the global literacy rate from 68 per cent in 1979 to 86 per cent in 2020.
“However, the current situation is still rife with injustice and inequality. At the halfway point in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 244 million school-age children are still not in school.
“98 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, 773 million adults still cannot read or write-two thirds of them women.
“Over and above illiteracy, learning gaps still too often lead to incomplete literacy: six out of ten children attending school at the age of ten cannot read and understand a simple text,” he said.
NAN reports that over 56 million of the country’s population are still unable to read and write, hence the current high statistics of non-literate population alongside the number of out-of-school children calls for concern.
It is however important that in eradicating the scourge of illiteracy, there must be improved funding, adequate resources and better attention to the non-formal education sector.