By Chika Nwachukwu
Parents have urged the Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman to face the challenges in the sector and leave the issue of age limit for admission into tertiary institutions.
The parents were reacting to the recent report that the minister barred underage students from participating in the National Examinations Council, NECO, and West African Examinations Council, WAEC, examinations, stating that the issue is the least of the challenges in the sector.
Speaking to AljazirahNigeria, a parent and civil servant in Abuja, Gozie Chikwendu wondered why the minister is concentrating on the issue of age limit while there is the problem of out-of-school children which he needs to tackle fast.
“With the mountain of problems in the education sector, why is age the real issue for the minister? We have out-of-school children whose number is increasing by the day and every time, the minister keeps talking about the issue of age limit,” he said.
It would be recalled that the minister had insisted that the new minimum age for admission into tertiary institutions will be 18 years.
Such decisions, Chikwendu noted have serious consequences for the bodies that handle examinations, parents, students and the entire sector.
“Almost all the children that graduated from secondary school are below 18 years. I believe this will continue in the next few years. So students will finish by 16 and wait for two years to write WAEC? This is not right at all,” he said.
Another parent, Ochuko Zion stated that the policy is retrogressive and outdated, adding that the world has moved to robotics and Artificial Intelligence, AI.
“We are in the 21st century, talking about AI and robotics, and the minister is busy trying to enforce an outdated policy which was initiated when a child will have to place his hand over his or her head to touch the ear before being admitted into primary school,” he lamented.
Also speaking, an educationist, Bola Ajibade noted that if government wants to implement the policy correctly, it should concentrate on the point of enrolment from primary school.
“The best place to start is when children enroll for primary education. The ones that have made the ‘mistake’, according to them, should be allowed to continue. It is wrong for them to announce plans in the heat of the moment without thinking things through and then create fresh problems,” she said.
