3 months ago
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Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described as absurd and a barrier to scholarships, the Federal Government’s 18-year age limit on National Examination Commission and West African Examination Council examinations.
Recall that the Federal Government, through the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, said individuals below 18 would no longer be allowed to sit the NECO and WAEC examinations from 2025.
Mamman, in an interview on Channels Television’s ‘Sunday Politics’, said the Federal Government had instructed WAEC, responsible for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination, and NECO, which administers the Senior School Certificate Examination, to enforce the 18-year age requirement for candidates taking the examinations.
At an education stakeholders meeting convened by the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board in July, the minister also announced that applicants below 18 years would not be offered admission to Nigerian higher institutions from 2025.
Atiku, in a reaction on his verified Facebook page on Wednesday, however, said the policy was outdated and belonged to the Stone Age.
The former vice president labelled the policy as controversial and called for universal condemnation from those who valued intellectual freedom and accessibility.
“Tinubu’s policy on age limit for tertiary education admission belongs in the Stone Ages.
“The recent policy of the Federal Ministry of Education pegging age limits for entry to tertiary institutions is an absurdity and a disincentive to scholarship.
“The policy runs foul of the notion of delineation of responsibilities in a federal system of government such as we are practising and gives a graphic impression of how the Tinubu government behaves like a lost sailor on a high sea.
“Otherwise, how is such anti-scholarship regulation the next logical step in the myriad of issues besetting our educational system?
“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.”
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 election said, “It is extra-constitutional for the Federal Government to legislate on education like a decree.
“The best global standard for such regulation is to allow the sub-national governments to make respective laws or rules on education.
“It is discouraging that even while announcing this obnoxious policy, the government inadvertently said it had no plan to cater for specially gifted pupils. That statement is an embarrassment to the body of intellectuals in the country because it portrays Nigeria as a country where gifted students are not appreciated.
“The irony here is that should the Federal Government play any role in education, it is to set up mechanisms that will identify and grant scholarships to gifted students, not minding their ages before applying for admission into tertiary institutions.
“This controversial policy belongs in the Stone Ages and should be roundly condemned by everyone who believes in intellectual freedom and accessibility.”
