Tertiary education: Atiku blasts Tinubu’s 18-year age limit, labels it stone age policy
Atiku Abubakar
Tertiary education: Atiku blasts Tinubu’s 18-year age limit, labels it stone age policy
Abdullateef Fowewe
Former Vice President and the People Democratic Party presidential candidate in the last general election, Atiku Abubakar has criticised the Federal Government for the 18-year age limit on the NECO and WAEC examinations describing it as a stone age educational policy.
Atiku in a release on Wednesday through his X (formally Twitter) handle tagged the policy as controversial and called for universal condemnation from those who value intellectual freedom and accessibility.
He noted that the policy runs foul of the notion of delineation of responsibilities in the kind of system of government that we are practising in Nigeria, and gives a graphic impression of how the Tinubu government behaves like a ‘lost sailor on a high sea’.
The release reads, “The recent policy of the Federal Ministry of Education pegging age limits for entry to tertiary institutions is an absurdity and a disincentive to scholarship. The policy runs foul of the notion of delineation of responsibilities in a federal system of government such as we are practising, and gives a graphic impression of how the Tinubu government behaves like a lost sailor on a high sea.
“Otherwise, how is such anti-scholarship regulation the next logical step in the myriad of issues besetting our educational system? To be clear, the Nigerian constitution puts education in the concurrent list of schedules, in which the sub-national government enjoys more roles than the federal government. Therefore, it is extra-constitutional for the federal government to legislate on education in a manner similar to a decree.
“The best global standard for such regulation is to allow the sub-national governments to make respective laws or rules on education. It is discouraging that even while announcing this obnoxious policy, the government inadvertently said it had no plan to cater for specially gifted pupils. That statement is an embarrassment to the body of intellectuals in the country because it portrays Nigeria as a country where gifted students are not appreciated.”
Atiku emphasised that the controversial policy belongs in the stone age and is supposed to be decried by everyone, stressing that if the FG want to play vital roles in education, they should introduce bodies that will identify and grant scholarships to talented students instead of restricting them to further their education.
“The irony here is that should the federal government play any role in education, it is to set up mechanisms that will identify and grant scholarships to gifted students not minding their ages before applying for admission into tertiary institutions.
“This controversial policy belongs in the Stone Ages and should be roundly condemned by everyone who believes in intellectual freedom and accessibility,” the statement added.
Dailyeconomy on Monday, August 26, reported that the FG announced that candidates below the age of 18 will no longer be permitted to take the National Examinations Council, West African Examinations Council and Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination starting from 2025.
