For a Federal Government that has a school for gifted children in Suleja, Niger State, the recent education policy announced by the Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman that only 18- year old would be allowed to write the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Examination, JAMB, henceforth can at best be taken as unthoughtful and at worse, retrogressive.
According to the Minister, who also said that the National Examinations Council, NECO, and the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, would not allow “under aged” students to write their examination, the education policy on JAMB is old. ‘’ Under age’’ means 17 and a half years, according to the Minister’s calculation.
“Even basically, if you compute the number of years pupils, and learners are supposed to be in school, the number you will end up with is 17 and a half-from early child care to primary school to junior secondary school to senior secondary…” Minster Mamman said.
Indeed, the advertised criterion for the 2024 examination by the Federal Government Academy in Suleja for gifted and talented children, goes like this: “NECO organizes the Gifted Examination into the Federal Government Academy, Suleja for gifted and talented children. Only final year primary school pupils under 11 years old are eligible to take the exam by December of the examination year…”. In case you missed it, please re-read the italicized words again.
In the context of that critical section of the stipulated criterion, we can infer that even an 8-year old might sit for the examination. Let us even assume that a 10-year old sat for the examination, that would mean they would be 16 by graduation from Senior Secondary School, meaning they would have to wait for another two years to meet the Minister’s policy.! What would these otherwise gifted and talented children be doing at home during the two years?
Now, the explanation for this rather wool- gathering policy is based on social maturity. How this definition was arrived at, we are yet to be told, though the Minister has insisted that he is trying to enforce a policy that has been on the table before he assumed office.
At any rate, it is well known and has been stated by educationists that in this matter under consideration maturity can be defined in physical, emotional and intellectual terms. And this expert advice would have formed the basis for the setting up of the Suleja academy.
By the way, is it not the same ministry that classified children as gifted and exceptional and recommended the Suleja school? Or don’t they have an education psychologist there at all or any longer?
In this age of technology, ICT and AI, when information/communication moves with the speed of light, thereby boosting the intellectual capacity across age groups, it beggars’ belief that Nigeria would be promoting education on the basis of physicality.
We understand that education stakeholders from the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASSU, the polytechnic and colleges of education counterparts have risen up against the policy, as it should be.
We join our voice of opposition to theirs and call on the Minister to reverse this policy that would succeed only in stunting and retarding the educational growth of the future leaders of Nigeria.
