According to the fiery and irrepressible human rights crusader, late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, it is better to stand on the truth, even if one is standing alone .
The recent directive of the minister of education, Professor Tahir Mamman on the minimum age, initially, for writing both WAEC & NECO SSCE and JAMB and later JAMB exam vis-a- vis entering Nigerian universities has generated a lot of what could be termed needless controversies as usual with Nigerians.
According to him, no candidate under 18 years should be allowed to write the JAMB exam or be admitted into any of the nation’s universities. In all honesty, the man did not say anything new but merely re emphasised a law that has been in existence for quite a while.
It is a great surprise that virtually all those who have reacted roundly condemned the minister, accusing him of unilaterally formulating a new law and making a pronouncement that is anti people.
Wonders shall never end because it beats one’s imagination that so many people are ignorant of a law that has been in existence for decades.
Another reason why this is so is the penchant of Nigerians to take things for granted, do their wish, circumvent the law and pretend to be doing what is right and proper.
Usually if and when attempts are made by the government to put things in proper perspective they find it difficult to change and adjust, which is exactly what is presently happening about this matter. ln Nigeria right from the sixties a child proposing to enter primary school is supposed to be 6 years of age.
He stays in primary school for another 6 years, making his age 12 years when he/she will probably enter secondary school. Such a student stays in the the 2 levels of secondary school, that is, JSS 1-3 and SSI-3 for another 6 years making his/her age 18 years by the time he will pass out and be ready to enter the university.
The genesis of the problem is the inability of successive governments in the country to enforce existing laws which are just too numerous to be mentioned here.
A vivid example of such law, though not related to this matter, is the right hand drive policy. I can recollect vividly that driving in Nigeria was changed from left to right precisely on 2nd April 1972.
As a newly admitted student into class one in January of that year, I remember that all schools were hurriedly closed throughout the country few days before the commencement of the new driving experience and all students sent home to prevent possible multiple road accidents.
It is a shameful thing on the part of successive governments in the country that they found it difficult to enforce compliance since then up till the present moment to the extent that right hand drive vehicles still abound on our roads over 52 years after the change.
Ironically if the government now thinks of putting its feet down to enforce strict compliance by impounding such vehicles, chances are that the culprits will see themselves being punished unjustly by blackmailing the government.
That is exactly what is happening in the present case whereby the education minister is being seen in a bad light.
Those who made the law knew that a child must reach a certain level of maturity before being registered for schooling.
Naturally the age of a child is supposed to be in consonance with his level of education and class.
Although the level of awareness was so low and the number of schools very few in the olden days when the law was strictly adhered to, the fact remains that those who passed through it came out very matured and ready to face the dynamics and the rigours of life.
The major problem since the past few years when the law started to be circumvented and bypassed has to do with the so-called jet age, civilization and modernization.
Most of the women then were full house wives or petty traders who had enough time for the proper upbringing and nurturing of their children up to the required age for the commencement of schooling.
Now many of such women are career ladies working in various government offices and the private sector who wean their children at relatively tender age and follow up by registering such toddlers in creches and early child schools regardless of what the law says concerning the proper age for the commencement of schooling.
It is the duty of parents to train, guide and direct their children on what to do, especially at the proper age for enrolling in school.
The problem is therefore that of the parents who are always eager to see their children in school so as to give them freedom and relief, at least for the period they would be away from them.
Another ridiculous reason for this practice is the tendency among their peers about the so-called academic progress of their children at a tender age, not minding the damage they do to such children mentally, psychologically, physically, emotionally, etc.
l think l can share my experience as a school principal with a parent in 2011. One of my students sat for GCE in SS2 and had an excellent result.
The next thing the mother did was to start processing his university admission which was illegal.
I dissuaded her to no avail and thereafter threatened to blacklist the student should the woman go ahead with the boy’s admission without allowing him to read SS3.
It took the effort of another parent whose daughter was dismissed for abandoning the school to go and sit for NECO SSCE in another school for the woman to back out of the plan.
This points to the damage parents do to their children’s aspiration. Another nasty experience of mine as a school administrator is that of an underaged student admitted into the school and was running into murky water almost on a daily basis.
It reached his head when he jumped into a soak away under construction and took the combined effort of some members of staff to rescue him. It was when his parents were summoned that the father openly accused his wife of falsifying the boy’s age when they were processing his admission into JSS one few years earlier in another school.
They nearly exchanged fisticuffs in the process but for the vice principal and the boy’s class teacher that separated them.
The parents were then made to write a letter of apology on his behalf while the boy also wrote a letter of undertaking to be of good behaviour henceforth for him to retain his studentship.
With the above nasty experiences one can see that the parents are the real causes of many of the misdemeanours of their children by going to any length to to pamper them especially with the general common saying among women that they don’t want their children to go through or experience what they went through in their youth.
Yet they forget to realise that life is like the proverbial cross which every individual will have to carry by him/herself.
In the above cases l had to let the parents realise that it is they that were stampeding and trying to lead their children astray. The inconsistency and lack of seriousness on the part of the government was glaringly displayed in this matter.
First, while the minister was meeting with other stakeholders on the cutoff points for admission into the nation’s tertiary institutions, he said that candidates that are under 18 years of age would not be admitted into any of the nation’s tertiary institutions this year.
He was reminded that the JAMB exam had long been written only for the post UTME screening to be done anytime from then, which in other words meant that his pronouncement was too late and could not be enforced this year.
He saw reason and promptly agreed that it should commence from next year’s admission, reiterating that it applies to candidates for the WAEC and NECO SSCE.
It was on the basis of that that hell was let loose with a barrage of condemnation, insinuation, name calling and so on. It is likely that it was the ceaseless criticism that made the government to tactically shift ground by saying later that it does not affect candidates for the two SSCE.
To make the matter worse, the government went ahead to say that there is no age limit for sitting for the two SSCE. This is more than curious as the implication of the new directive is that students can sit for the exams at any age.
The minister needs to tell the nation again where that is done in the world. It is believed that the government business is not necessarily to kowtow or succumb to the whims and caprices of the citizens even when such is unrealistic.
If anything, it should be the other way round as the government is supposed to make laws for the smooth running of the nation.
The last stand of the government is clear evidence that the government is not serious but was just playing to the gallery all along. It is hoped that such a statement will not be documented but just remain a mere policy statement. In fact the moment the shift in policy was pronounced there has been a sort of quietness on the matter.
Come to think of it, there is a natural age limit for different levels of education, otherwise can a five year old child be a secondary school student?
The mistake the minister, or better still, the government made is the spontaneity of the policy. First, he erroneously gave the impression that the directive was a new law, and beside that, a grace of 5 years should have been given so that it won’t affect those that are already in secondary schools.
With the seeming lackadaisical attitude of the government it is yet to be seen how the law would be effectively implemented, more so as the ever lawless parents are ready to go to any length to circumvent it.
BIYI ODUYALE adebiyioduyale@gmail.com (An educationist and a former school administrator)
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