The Campaign for Equal Rights and Opportunities for All Nigerians, CERON, has condemned the Federal Government’s proposed policy to restrict children under 18 from registering for WAEC, NECO, and JAMB examinations, calling it outdated and counterproductive.
Recently, Minister of Education Prof. Tahir Mamman reportedly announced on national television that the Federal Government has instructed WAEC and NECO to enforce an age requirement of 18 for candidates starting next year.
In a statement issued over the weekend in Makurdi, CERON Executive Secretary Mr. Francis Odiir criticized the policy as “strange and unthinkable,” arguing that it could hinder the advancement of education in Nigeria.
Odiir noted that the policy is inconsistent with global trends, where governments typically encourage students to complete their secondary education and advance to tertiary institutions at an earlier age.
“Our question is what does the Minister of Education intend to achieve by wanting to introduce this policy? Even if the policy had been there and not implemented, why does he want to implement it in this time and age.
“We urge President Bola Tinubu to scrap the policy if truly it exists, because it is meant to retard the education of our children most of whom finished secondary school before 18 years. Most of our children now round up with Secondary School at 16 years. So is he saying that they must wait to attain 18 years before they write those exams.
“The Educatuon Minister must be made to realise that we are living in an age of exceptionally brilliant children who even at very young age are breaking new grounds and cannot be retarded by the archaic policy.
“We urge the Minister to shelve plans to introduce that policy because the present generation of young Nigerians cannot be held back from doing exploits in education through a policy that belongs to the archives.”
(allnews.ng)
Leave a Reply