By Ojikutu Adeniyi
The 6-3-3-4 education system was introduced by the then Military government to help every Nigerian child acquire reading and writing skills. In the instance where they are unable to advance their education beyond the [6-3] bracket, which is Junior Secondary School III (JSS III), they would have acquired marketable skills that make them self-sufficient and skilled enough to create self-employment. If they can advance, they are free to proceed to Senior Secondary School and beyond.
Permit me to remind you that the objectives at the JSS level were to focus on skill acquisition and self-development. The schools were equipped with technical drawing laboratories, home economics, science laboratories, chemistry laboratories, biology, and physics laboratories, which were funded and well-equipped. But the situation is different in today’s secondary schools. Back then, the government and missionaries largely controlled a larger number of schools. Also, the population of Nigeria was about 85 million as of 1985 (Microtrend 2024), which is less than 39% of today’s population of about 220 million.
Despite all the good intentions at the inception of the 6-3-3-4 policy, the results were still disappointing. The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in 2022 reported that Nigeria had 20.2 million out-of-school children. In a recent interview, Minister Prof. Tahir Mamman estimated between 10-11 million out-of-school children, though this estimate is not properly backed by research. As reported by UNICEF (2022) 50% of girls across Nigeria have never attended school, nor have any higher basic education. This report highlights poverty and underfunded education as key factors contributing to the crisis of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
Whether we rely on UNICEF’s study or Prof. Tahir Mamman’s guesswork, it is clear that there is still a long way to go for primary and secondary education in Nigeria. Prof. Mamman initially wanted to disrupt the admission process for the 1.9 million pupils eligible to write the UTME examination as organized by JAMB in 2024 by suggesting that the 18-year-old University admission criteria would start from 2024. However, he later retracted this proposal. Mamman has proposed that the Ministry of Education should not register students under 18 years of age for the West African Examination Council (WAEC) O’Level exams and NECO.
I must therefore, remind the Minister that the source of funding of most students’ examination fees can be traced to State Governments, Private individuals (Good Samaritans), religious organizations (mosques and churches), politicians across different political constituencies, NGOs among others. The truth is that many are not afforded the opportunity of writing the exams in the first place due to the cost of these exams. Mr. Minister, it is my belief that you aware that some candidates and parents are unable to sit for the exams due to poverty and other peculiarities within individual family circumstances. It is noteworthy that if some of these tertiary-bound pupils do not get free forms, they will not bother to further their education. This is why we see incentives providing free JAMB, WAEC and NECO forms, along with free skill acquisition programmes across the country, in order to encourage the younger generation to learn and progress. These incentives by private individuals and NGOs among others trying to increase the number of educated youths by providing forms and sponsorship cannot be wrong because they are closer to the people and understand the new generation and their psyche and are actively involved in investing in the new generation.
Therefore, the proposition for the 18-year age restriction as a barrier to entering Nigerian universities or tertiary institutions, especially for the average family, would be like pouring salt on a wound for struggling families. Particularly for gifted students who finish their education before they attain the age of 18, what do you propose they do? As the Nation is facing massive brain drain, is this policy made with the interest of the Nigerian people at heart? I do not think so.
The Minister needs to remember the dark years when Nigerian students attended universities in the Republic of Benin, Togo, and Ghana between 2006 and 2016. Over 10,000 Nigerian students were enrolled in one university in the Republic of Benin at a time, not to mention several other universities along the coasts of West Africa. This migration occurred due to a bad educational policy that set a cut-off mark of 200, meaning no university would admit anyone with a score below 200. Consequently, Nigerian parents and their children sought alternative admissions elsewhere. The Republic of Benin, Togo, and Ghana benefited from Nigeria’s policy deficiencies during that period. Many Nigerian private universities were affected as their candidates went elsewhere. However, a single policy change by JAMB, lowering the cut-off mark, has positively impacted Nigerian universities, polytechnics, colleges, and the towns and cities where these institutions are located, in terms of student population and socioeconomic development.
It is important to note that the direction of knowledge acquisition worldwide is shifting from strict university degrees to skill set development. Your age restriction is a draconian policy that does not align with current knowledge requirements. Across the world, in fields like Computer Science and Information Technology, one does not need a four-year university degree to gain professional certifications; universities in Europe and America award degrees based on professional certifications. Similarly, in Mass Communication, Marketing Communication, Business/Management, Art, Engineering, Social Science, Science, and Accounting/Finance, professional bodies are updating their skill requirements, not relying solely on university degree curricula.
The Honourable Minister need not think in the past. The 18-year age policy, as suggested by the Minister, would negatively impact universities, parents, and youths in many ways, including:
a. It would lead to parents sending their children to universities outside Nigeria.
b. It would result in a loss of students and revenue for Nigerian universities and could lead to the closure of some private universities.
c. Many students who complete their secondary education at age 16 would have to wait for 2 years, potentially turning to undesirable activities such as cybercrime and other vices.
d. It would impose a greater financial burden on Nigerian parents in terms of raising a child.
e. It could lead to a larger number of idle youths who may be recruited for criminal activities.
f. Brain drain could occur due to students staying at home.
g. There might be an increase in teenage pregnancies.
h. There could be a decline in the number of tertiary-educated Nigerians.
i. It will affect the large number of pupils currently in the 23,550 Nigerian secondary schools, numbering close to 14 million as of 2021 according to Trend Economics (2024).
j. It could lead to national unrest and embarrassment, as most students’ education is funded by parents in private schools, not government schools.
k. There will arise different short cut around Admission racketeering and age fortification due to this bad policy..
The effect of this proposed draconian and outdated age restriction policy will harm the future of the educational sector and the lives of over 14 million Nigerian secondary school students and many struggling average families. Honourable Minister, we need a more quality educational sector by reducing the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, not increasing it. For history sack make a U-turn from a wrong direction in history to glorious one that will not mar the future of progress of young Nigerians.
OJIKUTU ADENIYI, Ph.D.
Computer Village Ikeja Lagos Nigeria..
Tuesday, 27 August, 2024.
