UNICAL ‘SCANDAL’ AND AGE QUALIFICATION
The authorities at UNICAL should do what is right
In what has become a disturbing pattern of policy inconsistencies, the federal government has formally set 16 years as the minimum age for admission into Nigeria’s tertiary institutions. In announcing the decision last week in Abuja, the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa said the issue of age at entry into tertiary institutions had generated much debate, “but our position is clear.” Just a year ago, his predecessor, Tahir Mamman, had banned students who are under-18 years from sitting for the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate (WASSCE) examination, and the National Examinations Council (NECO). It was to take effect from the coming 2025/26 academic session before the latest intervention.
However, this shift in age qualification for admission into tertiary institutions comes against the backdrop of reports that about 300 students of the Faculty of Dentistry and Dental Surgery, University of Calabar, could be expelled. Not for anything they have done wrong but on grounds that the institution admitted more students than the number officially accredited by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN). Some of the affected students who are reportedly in their fourth and fifth years of study, were said to have been issued letters summoning them for a meeting regarding what the school authorities described as ‘non-regular’ admissions. The Nigerian Association of Dental Students (NADS) has already waded in by expressing “grave concern and deep disappointment” over the crisis, resulting in the loss of accreditation of the Faculty of Dentistry. NADS has rightly condemned the suggestion that the students should bear the consequences of the institution’s administrative failures.
Since the University of Calabar has not made any statement regarding the issue, we want to assume that it is weighing the options, and common sense should prevail.
Meanwhile, it is good that the federal government has reversed itself on the controversial age policy that was meant to take effect from the coming academic session. Although the 6-3-3-4 system the country operates assumes that children would spend six years in primary school and another six years in secondary school (divided into junior and senior) before completion at age 18, the system has not worked seamlessly. Besides, age qualification is the least of the problems that currently plague the sector.
The entire educational landscape is dotted with schools without books, equipment and competent teachers. At the tertiary level, the tell-tale signs are the products – unskilled, unproductive and unable to compete with their peers elsewhere. The crisis of tertiary education in Nigeria is better appreciated by the large number of our young citizens trooping to neighbouring countries within the West African sub-region to earn degrees.
In the past, the educational system in Nigeria provided one of the best in the world. But the sector is now fraught with problems, all of them self-inflicted. Instead of focusing on age qualifications for tertiary institutions, we urge Alausa to turn his attention on many of the critical issues that are weighing down education in the country. Issues like fixing infrastructure in schools, hiring quality staff and securing the environment in which they learn. In an age of technology, many of our educational institutions, at all levels, are sorely deprived.
On the case of the dentistry students at the University of Calabar, we also urge Alausa to intervene. Authorities on the campus must be made to come out clearly on what the issues are regarding the fate of the students who should not be made to suffer for no fault of theirs.
