Mamman on path to destroying education

BOLA Tinubu’s Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, is on a fast lane to destroy the dying education sector.

In an interview aired on national television, Mamman noted that the government would enforce a ban on students under 18 from sitting the Senior School Certificate Examination organised by the West African Certificate Examination and the National Examination Council. This is extremism and could violate their right to education.

Therefore, Mamman’s policy must not be allowed to stand. The minister cannot base policy implementation on a single case referred to him from overseas.

He noted that early care is to last for the first five years. Pupils are expected to begin primary school at the age of six, spend six years in primary school, move to junior secondary school at the age of 12, spend three years, before moving to senior secondary school at the age of 15, to spend three more years, and leave for university at the age of 18. This aligns with the 6-3-3-4 system. This is due for a review.

Mamman failed to realise that millions in the system would be adversely affected by the implementation of this retrogressive policy.

Pupils aged 15-16 in the final lap of senior secondary school will have to fritter away close to two to three years before they are allowed to sit the SSCE, which will usher them into universities. This will continue for several years because they are already in the system. It is unacceptable.

The average number of years spent in a Nigerian university is five, considering occasional disruptions like industrial actions by unions. This is apart from students studying medicine, nursing, and engineering, who spend longer years in the university.

The 2023 data from UNESCO, in partnership with the Global Education and Monitoring Report, put the number of out-of-school children at 20.2 million, doubling the 10.5 million figures quoted for decades. UNICEF adds that one in three children in Nigeria is out of school, totalling 10.2 million at the primary level and 8.1 million at the JSS level. It said one in every five out-of-school children in the world is in Nigeria. Mamman’s ban escalates these depressing statistics.

It will aggravate the number of children out of school, increasing in the number of criminals. Children who experience a break in academics easily become willing tools in the hands of criminal and terrorist groups, as in the case of bandits and Boko Haram insurgents.

Nigeria is already sitting on a keg of gunpowder regarding the number of out-of-school children in the northern part of the country. Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna lamented the current high number of out-of-school children in the state, which he put at 680,000. Gombe Governor, Muhammadu Yahaya, said the number of un-schooled children in the state had risen from 500,000 in 2019 to 600,000.

In recent years, South-West states have also contributed significantly to the national out-of-school population, a bitter testimony to the declining leadership in the region that pioneered free, universal education in Africa under transformative and visionary leadership.

Education is the building block of every society. It is a fundamental human right and one of the targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Tinubu must rein in his minister and encourage him to focus on important issues. Universities are facing strike threats; basic education is gradually crumbling with primary and secondary schools owned by federal and state governments suffering from an absence of teachers, and infrastructure.