Efforts at realising further academic pursuits will continue to remain impossible for the teeming Nigerian youths until the federal government, as well as other policy makers in the nation’s educational system abolish all tertiary institutions’ admission regulatory bodies.
This is because the quota Policy which has over the years been the bedrock of admission and placement for Nigeria’s admission seekers has succeeded at negatively tampering with the career choices for all tertiary institutions’ applicants.
These and more were part of the submissions arrived at by stakeholders during the year 2023 stakeholders’ forum and presentation of awards organised by the School Aid Initiative (SAI) held on Friday at the Bishops’ Court, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Speaking at the event themed: “The Quota Policy In Nigerian Educational System: A Determinant Of Undergraduate Career Choice In Public & Private Universities”, SAI’s African Regional President, Dr. Adebayo Oluwatosin said the demands become exigent in view of the challenges being faced by the over 600, 000 Nigerian youths whose career pursuits have annually being at the whims and caprices of those tertiary institutions’ regulatory bodies.
With particular mentioning of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), the Nigeria University Commission (NUC) as well as the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Oluwatosin particularly advocated that Nigeria’s educational system needs to move to the global standard, whereby universities would determine the students’ qualifications and not a unified examination body.
“Every year, NUC, NBTE come up with their own quota. JAMB will also come with its own quota and at the end of the day, the children of the masses are the ones suffering from this policy.
“That is why we are agitating for it every year, that this quota system; the idea of JAMB saying university can’t admit more than certain number like say 5, 000 applicants in one particular institution or 50 students in one particular department at the end of both public and Private universities cannot admit more than 600, 000. Who is going to be affected more?
“It is only in Nigeria that we are still using the quota system, it is only in Nigeria that we are still using a unified examination before admitting applicants into the university. Our leaders have been travelling all over the world and are well familiar with what is obtainable over there.
If the quota system is what they are using there, would their children be opportune to gain admission there at institutions like Harvard University and Oxford University? Of course, No!”
“That is why I said the idea of quota systems of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) should be completely eradicated. Let institutions make use, the university knows what they want.
“If it is going to be for a genuine purpose, if the government is going to do it with a genuine mind, it is good. I said that education cannot be free, parents should be ready to pay for tuition fees, particularly the federal universities, so if the government introduces a loan the fee will be introduced and the school will have money to finance or whatever their challenges are “.
