Still On Age Limit, WAEC And NECO Controversy

By Bola BOLAWOLE
[email protected] 0807 552 5533

On the raging controversy of 18-years or nothing less before admission into the country’s institutions of higher learning, the authorities have a mountain to climb if the groundswell of public opinion is anything to go by. The policy is not new; it has been in our statute books for God-knows-when. Just like I have said in previous interventions on this matter, the policy prevented me from starting school the very first time I was presented at the nearby Ansar–U-Deen (AUD) Primary School because I was deemed not of age. I only scaled through the next year.

But like many things in Nigeria, its enforcement was abandoned decades back. Its latest presentation by the Minister of Education was, therefore, not the enactment of a new or novel legislation. The message could, however, have been better packaged and its implementation less hasty and hazy but, truth be told, the policy appears the right way to go; making allowance , however, for children with special talents. There are no rules without exceptions.

If I may ask, why rush kids into institutions of higher learning before they are mature enough to take good care of themselves or even have a clear idea of why they are there? Why are graduate kids unable to differentiate their right hand from their left? Ask employers of labour what they face with our present crop of graduates! Letting them mature a little bit more is what operates in many other parts of the world.

So, the task now is how to go about it here in a seamless and orderly manner. It cannot be rushed. It can also not be decreed. Yet, we must not lose sight of the dangers inherent in the break-neck speed at which many parents are rushing their children up the education ladder these days. Bragging rights at the expense of the good health of both the children and the nation is an expensive joke carried too far. We must all reason together.

Today, I print here a few of the rejoinders to last week’s “New education policy: Another fiasco loading?” This is a running story; therefore, the discussion must continue. What is involved is the future of our children and our children are not just the leaders of tomorrow, they are, more importantly, our own future as individuals.

ALSO READ: I Promise Good Governance: President Tinubu Tells Nigerians In China, Leaves For UK

“A house that is built on a poor foundation must collapse. Our founding fathers, especially in the defunct Western Region, took their time to prepare for the free and compulsory primary school education that took off in 1955. As the free primary schools took off, secondary modern schools, grade III teacher training colleges, farm settlements and vocational training institutions were simultaneously established. The products of the primary schools who could not make it directly to secondary schools could go to the modern schools. Provisions were made for the products of secondary modern schools to go to the grade III teacher training colleges or the vocational training institutes or join the secondary school in Form II. Many egg-heads in our higher institutions today, who might not have had the opportunity to go to school at all, are testimonies to the thinking capacity of the founding fathers. Today, we wake up to find the policies of yesterday jettisoned. This is destructive and destabilizing. We must have a working plan that we should follow steadily for some time. Changing policies and plans abruptly can be likened onto shifting the goal post in the middle of a football game. – Pa EK Odeleye.

Nigeria! Who is going to deliver us from “jump before you leap” syndrome? Good policies but bad or wrong implementation; policies that cannot stand the test of time because of poor planning and execution! Are our policy makers doing all this to gain public attention or are they doing Nigerians any good? Why do we always put the cart before the horse, with policies being announced without any implementation strategy on ground. – Olaoye Julius.

“A” Level or technical colleges for two years or going for apprenticeship can be introduced to the education system. Change in policies can be introduced in a couple of years; not immediately.- Olufunmilayo.

The implementation of this policy ought to be delayed for at least six sessions starting from the 2024/25 session to accommodate those in primary and secondary schools. So, by June 2031, no student writing WASCE will be less than 18 years of age. – Olufemi.

This policy must not stand. It is backward. The (new) age limit to write WAEC and gain admission into the university is unacceptable. This is not the problem that is affecting good governance. If a 12-year-old girl can be married to a 70-year-old man, what stops a 13-year-old from writing WAEC and gaining admission into the university? The government must reverse the backward policy now so that young, enterprising and brilliant students will not be affected. The social effect of this policy on the country will be disastrous. Nigeria can not afford to lag behind the developing world in this present-day when a five-year-old Nigeria-born girl won the best drummer award with a prize money of about $1million in the United States of America! – Dr. Amos Olusola Olagunju.

We are citizens of two nations but natives of neither. We make use of British and American systems of education but do not appropriately apply their methods. The new education policies are not new but outdated. In the developed countries, various approaches are adopted to allow for flexibility. There are educational programs for young children run by teams of experts; and specially designed curriculums are in use to make learners achieve set targets rapidly. So, by such programs, children in their teens could complete their first and second degrees and move on to terminal degrees. In the USA, similarly, candidates in their various compositions are allowed to take matrix exams; once most of them pass, they are qualified for admission into the university whose matrix exam they passed. That, here in Nigeria, our children skip classes is normal, once they are able to pass common entrance exams or any others… There were among my teachers in secondary school those who traveled abroad with their Grade 11 teachers’ certificate, spent three years and got their first and second degrees. Here in Nigeria, it is impossible for Grade 11 teachers to have their first and second degrees in three years. Here in Nigeria, for students to study computer science and information systems, they must be good in science-related subjects: our citizens travel abroad to study computer-related courses without a good background in science-related subjects. Opportunities for advancement abound abroad while also having jobs to keep life going; here, our children do not have access to such opportunities. – Oludoye.

This is the typical Nigerian government’s way of doing things. My children, as my family’s policy, did six years of each of primary and secondary school and were six years old before starting primary school. So, they entered the university at 18 years or thereabout. So 18 years has an advantage – maturity – but to make it a policy beats my imagination! – Bola Olowo.

God bless you, brother, for this masterpiece. You have spoken the mind of many parents. How, for heaven’s sake, do I tell my daughter who will be 15 years next year and is getting ready to write WASCE that the government of the day says she must clock 18 before writing the papers? So, is it a crime now in Nigeria that she and others in her shoes all over the country are very brilliant? These brilliant students should go home and wait till they attain the prescribed age? I can’t simply comprehend it! Remember, this was how the then education minister Jubril Aminu, during the Babangida regime, in the middle of the match changed the goalposts in 1987 regarding the academic calendar for HSC candidates. Instead of May/June of 1988, those of us affected by the policy had to write our final papers in November/December. That was how I and others lost one academic calendar as we had to stay at home awaiting our results. Those of us who came out successfully got admission for the 1989/1990 academic session as opposed to 1988/1989 that we had prepared for when we gained admission to study for HSC in 1986. I attended the then Oyo State College of Arts and Science (OSCAS), Ile-Ife.That was before the creation of Osun State. And to think that millions of Southerners will be more affected makes the 18-year age limit even suspect. – Idowu Lanre Alabi.

The people in power will just wake up and start introducing policies that are not favourable, and they want Nigerians to adhere to them immediately! This is not helping us as a nation. The funny thing is that they send their own children abroad at 15, 16 and 17 years of age to start university education there! Pastor Austin Igharoro”.

From the above, we can see that more enlightenment needs to be done by the relevant authorities. More time to adjust by everyone concerned is also needed. When parents keep their children at home before they attain the age of six, what will such children be doing? The government must be interested in this and not heap the responsibility on parents alone. A buffer zone in the name of “A” Level should also be made available so that students who have made the “O” Level papers before they are 18 can move up there rather than pine away at home. These are details that must be worked out before this policy can be implemented to the satisfaction of all.

LAST WORD: Town is not smiling at all! While lingering fuel scarcity scattered everywhere, the increase in the pump price of fuel has silenced everyone. The Minister of State for Petroleum tried to exculpate the president from blame while pushing the NNPC under the bus; he must think that Nigerians are dunces! But I do not blame him; he is just an appointee, not minding how highly he may regard himself. The man we voted for and who owes us an explanation that we can take to the bank is the president, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is on his desk, and not the NNPC’s, that the buck stops. So, over to you, Mr. President! We, your electors, want to hear from you on this matter!

* Former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/ Editor-in-chief of The WESTERNER newsmagazine. He writes the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday TRIBUNE and TREASURES column in NEW TELEGRAPH newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.