Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has slammed the Federal Government for implementing a policy prohibiting under-18s from seeking tertiary education admission.
Atiku made his position known in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, revealed on a Channels Television programme on Sunday that the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), which administers the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), and the National Examinations Council (NECO), which organises the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE), had been directed to comply with the directive on the 18-year age limit for any candidate to be eligible for the two examinations.
Mamman added that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) continued to have an 18-year-old age restriction.
He emphasized that the policy was not brand-new; rather, the current administration was simply enforcing it.
However, many critics have faulted the Federal Government for choosing to enforce the policy which they said would stagnate educational development in the country.
In his reaction, Atiku said the policy on the age limit for tertiary education admission “belongs in the Stone Ages.”
The 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party further described it as 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 above 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.
“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,” Atiku said.
