The former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has faulted President Bola Tinubu’s decision to adjust age limit for varsity and other tertiary education admission seekers in the country.
Atiku, who described the new policy as a medieval idea, stated that the idea is disincentive to scholarship across the country.
He noted that the new policy would set the education sector backward and prevent specially gifted pupils from exhibiting their natural talents in the country.
The condemnation on the policy came barely three days after the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, announced that no candidate below age 18 would be allowed to seat for the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination beginning from 2025.
Atiku, who was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate during the 2023 election, stated this on Wednesday while reacting to developments across the country in a statement released on his official social media handle.
According to the statement, “Tinubu’s policy on age limit for tertiary education admission belongs in the Stone Ages. The recent policy of the Federal Ministry of Education pegging age limits for entry to tertiary institutions is 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 pratising, 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”.
