September 22, (THEWILL) – When the Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, announced at the 2024 Policy Meeting of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) on education in Abuja that students under 18-years should not be given admission into the university and other tertiary institutions, many stakeholders in the sector kicked against it.
While stakeholders, including the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, Vice Chancellors and other Heads of tertiary institutions, were putting pressure on the Federal Government to reduce the age limit of entry into tertiary institutions to 16 years, proprietors of private secondary schools, as well as parents and guardians expressed the opinion that government should reverse the policy because their students or children could not wait till they turned 18 to gain admission into universities or other tertiary institutions.
Most parents, including principals of private schools, teachers, immediately heard the Minister of Education’s announcement on the policy and felt that the FG did not want their children or students to write the West Africa Senior Secondary Schools Certificate Examination (WASSCE) or other external examinations below the age of 18.
This, the Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu, expressed disappointment in mixed reactions against the policy, saying that the stakeholders in the sector and other Nigerians misconstrued Mamman’s pronouncement. They insisted that the minister had not derailed from the 6:3:3:4 policy on education.
Sununu, who wondered why some universities or tertiary institutions would give admission to children between age 10 and 12, revealed that the Federal Government was considering whether or not to engage students who have the IQ of adults and finished secondary school before the age of 18 in order to improve their lives before they reach the stipulated policy age entry into higher institutions.
“It is shocking to say that a university in the country gave admission to children at ages 10, 11 and 12. This is totally wrong. We are not saying that there are no exceptions, we know we can have talented students that have the IQ of adults, even at the ages of 6 and 7, but these are very few” he said.
But, like the supporters of the policy, an educationist and the Principal of Daywaterman College, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Mr Ahmed Kamal, backed the Federal Government’s position on the entry age issue, claiming that the Minister of Education’s declaration showed that the FG had not derailed on the 6:3:3:4 policy on education in Nigeria.
He equally urged the FG to peg the age limit for children or students that make use of smart phones in order to censor or regulate what they watch (particularly sexual contents) on the Internet or social media.
Kamal, who knocked NUT and other stakeholders in the education sector for kicking against the policy, said that it was high time JAMB, Heads of tertiary institutions, parents, guidance and other players in the sector align with the policy to improve and remove rot in the education system, while calling on FG to call all the stakeholders to a round table for discussion before the policy could be implemented.
Already, he said, the policy had generated so much mixed reactions from Nigerians, including private schools owners, parents and guardians, especially those who take their children to private schools where they can graduate on time to gain admission into tertiary institutions before the implementation of the entry age policy.
He insisted that most of the stakeholders were aware of the 6:3:3:4 policy, but they had over time flouted it for reasons best known to them.
The educationist stated that if the university entry age policy eventually stands, the Federal Government should also consider an entry age for creche, primary and secondary schools, too.
He insisted that a roundtable with the stakeholders was need for FG to do rigorous implementation of the policy.
He said, “I think the government has acted with very good intentions, I might have some issues with the announcement, but there is an age range to the kind of challenge young people should be espoused to at different times. In the past, if you look at the national policy on education, the 6-3-3-4 actually stipulates that a child who starts primary school at age six will finish at 12, then the child will spend the next six years in high school. This will bring the child to 18 years and that will be the age to enter into a university or any level of tertiary institutions.”
“With this policy, the government has not said anything strange. The challenge I have with this policy is this: What about the child who grew up in an environment that lacks enforcement of this principles and policy, who is now 16 and has to go to the university? So, what happens to the child if the child graduated at 16 and there is no opportunity to enter a university because of an A level programme that is not well established in Nigeria?
“I think the government should do a roll on, so that those who are graduating too early will now take a step further and go to A level to cover for the age that is required. For this to function, we must go back to answer the following questions: At what age should a child enter nursery school? At what age should a child be in primary school? At what age should a child go to a high school?”
Kamal maintained that government cannot achieve the censorship of sexual contents on social media or the Internet without parents’ cooperation, charging them to always monitor what their children do on their phones and computers to rescue them from immorality, while asking FG to treat any parents found culpable of not adhering to such proposed policy as criminals.
“I think there should be a kind of regulation. As they say, you can’t ride a car until you attain a particular age and you also can’t use a smart phone until you are at a certain age, but, that doesn’t mean that some parents will not contradict the law. When you make a rule, those who violate it become offenders and you can hold them accountable. I think the Federal Government should also regulate ownership of smart phones and not allow children below 18 years to use them, so as to regulate sexual contents.” he noted.
