Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 PDP Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, has criticized President Bola Tinubu‘s Federal Government for the 18-year age limit on NECO and WAEC exams, calling it absurd and a barrier to scholarship.
As Minister of Education Prof. Tahir Mamman revealed, the federal government recently banned individuals under 18 from participating in these middle-school level examinations. In response, former Vice President Atiku criticized the policy as “anti-scholarship regulation” and called for universal condemnation from those who value intellectual freedom and accessibility.
He lectured the president that the Nigerian constitution put education in the concurrent list of schedules and therefore his “policy runs foul of the notion of delineation of responsibilities in a federal system of government such as we are practicing, and gives a graphic impression of how the Tinubu government behaves like a lost sailor on a high sea.“
Atiku argued that the “best global standard for such regulation is to allow the sub-national governments to make respective laws or rules on education.”
He said even worse was that the government’s statement that it had no plan to cater to specially gifted pupils was an embarrassment to the body of intellectuals in Nigeria.
He argued that if the federal government played any role in education, it should be to set up mechanisms to identify and grant scholarships to gifted students regardless of their age before they even apply 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 former vice president added.
Comment, Like 👍, share this article, and Follow us on our social media handles.
WhatsApp Channel
Telegram Channel
