New Policy On University Entry Exam: A Further Threat To Education In Nigeria!

First published: 18 November 2011 at 19:00

THE OVAL TABLE

29 Forces Avenue, Port Harcourt. Email:deovaltable@gmail.com GSM:08033106186

November 11,2011

His Excellency

Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

President& C-IN-C

Federal Republic of Nigeria

Aso Rock Villa

Abuja

Your Excellency, 

NEW POLICY ON UNIVERSITY ENTRY EXAM:

A FURTHER THREAT TO EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

We write to seek your urgent action on the Minister of Education's new Open Access policy pegging the minimum post-UME test score required for admission into Nigerian Universities at 180 for Universities and 160 for Polytechnics.

 We call for your intervention as we are convinced that this policy is a grave threat to the remaining integrity of our country's educational system which is akin to removing the ‘goal post’ or ‘entry barrier’ toa specialized sphere of education meant for ‘minds thoroughly prepared through a 12 year period’ of tuition.

In doing this, we are keeping with our commitment as a community based civic group that not only identify problems in our dear Nigeria but also make recommendations towards resolving the identified problems.

The frightening decline in the standard of education in our dear country is evident in the abysmal scores recorded in the last WASCE and NECO examinations respectively.

A lowering of the entry requirement for university admission will only serve to further lower the quality of education, erode the rigour vital to any academic pursuit, lead to a national acculturation to examination malpractices, and culminate in mass failures and an inferior workforce of the future.

It is akin to reducing the number of credits required in the WASCE and NECO examinations under the disingenuous excuse of making university admission easier.

It is safe to assume that part of the reason for the appointment of the Honourable Minister to her current office was your confidence in her ability to transform the education sector, in line with your overall vision and development agenda. It is therefore difficult to understand why she would consider a decision to adjust the UME test curves downwards in the guise of expanding the university admission system, and under the pretext of enforcing the Quota system.

We can no longer ignore the fact that our educational standards are fast slipping and cannot sustain our national aspirations for development and strategic self reliance. We therefore appeal to you to resist every pressure aimed at causing your Administration to compromise on such a fundamental issue as education, especially in the light of your repeated avowals to restore the quality of education in Nigeria to the level obtainable in our glory days.

Your Excellency, this promise of yours continues to ring in the minds of all conscientious and patriotic parents, students and younger ones alike, all of whom are running today with your resonating charge that "if I can make it, you can make it".

Your Excellency, the quality and standards of education that enabled you, with God's grace, to make it this far should be the minimum acceptable quality and standards for our children and youths.

We are constrained to remind the Honourable Minister that her appointment is a contract with the nation, of which the lowering of entry marks is a careless breach. Decreasing standards in the sector will have damaging effects on the quality of the work force of the future, particularly the emergent streams of post-2015 graduates that will constitute the immediate evidence of whether or not you would have left a legacy in education from your current tenure in office.

Only a few weeks ago, a Swiss University released a research result threatening the core of Albert Einstein’s theory on the speed of light. We wonder if in the light of such phenomenal global trends Nigerian institutions and graduates will be able to compete globally when already they have been “dumbed down” by an educational policy that encourages mediocrity.

In effect, the Minister's retrogressive policy negates the very essence of having the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) in existence or conducting the Universities Matriculation Examinations (UME) at all.The logical extension then is that we might as well scrap JAMB and with it the UME, for this policy makes them redundant, a mere formality, and of no substantive value.

We do not believe that this is a scenario that would appeal to our President.

OUR PRAYERS:

I. Most importantly, we appeal that you declare a state of emergency in the education sector, along with a bold and articulate plan on how to get the country out of the current degeneration in the sector.

II. The required minimum score in post-UME exams should be brought back to the original level, from the 160 & 180 that the Minister has reduced it to.

III. We request for a reform of the ministry and its parastatals and change their perception from ‘centers of employment’ into ‘strategic purpose vehicles’ for the provision of a veritable human resource base for the future.

IV. That the Honourable Minister be required to go beyond rhetoric and present a detailed blue print for each level of the sector she mans; including parastatals, institutions, teachers, students, infrastructure and curricula, with achievable time lines.

V. That she endeavour to transform the Ministry and its parastatals from centers of employment into strategic purpose vehicles for the provision of a veritable human resource base for the future.

VI. That you direct the Honourable Minister to design a program for all those who failed the exams, to groom and prepare them for the exams in 2012.

VII. Being that the last 50years have proven that the Federal Government lacks the capacity to qualitatively sustain these strategic services, we recommend that the Federal Government begins to consider how to move these educational institutions and their budgets to the states; while the Federal Ministry of Education and its parastatals will be reformed and driven as REGULATORS primarily, for the purpose of ensuring a minimum standard of quality in the sector.

We count on your deep patriotism and trust that you will come to the rescue of our endangered educational system, if our Generation Next is to make it like your exemplary self has made it.

Thank you

Sincerely yours

FOR: THE OVAL TABLE

IFEOMA IFEJIKA (MS)                                                       EUGENE ABELS

Secretary                                                                            Chairman