Chris Maiyaki, Former Performing Government Secretary, Nationwide Universities Fee (NUC) has highlighted a number of crucial challenges undermining the Fee’s capacity to completely obtain its mandate of advancing college training in Nigeria.
Talking on the formal handover ceremony to Abdullahi Yusufu Ribadu, the brand new substantive Government Secretary on Monday, Maiyaki underscored points equivalent to insufficient funding, outdated regulatory legal guidelines, restricted integration of knowledge and communication expertise (ICT) and weak governance as key hurdles going through the Fee.
He lamented that funding constraints has constantly hindered the NUC’s capability to implement transformative initiatives and maintain high quality assurance processes. In keeping with him, this funding hole impacts the Fee’s capacity to manage successfully and broaden entry.
Maiyaki additionally famous that lots of the legal guidelines governing the NUC are outdated and haven’t stored tempo with the evolving increased training panorama.
“These out of date legal guidelines restrict the Fee’s capacity to adapt to new traits and to manage the proliferation of unlawful or unauthorized degree-awarding establishments,” he said, including that the dearth of authorized reforms has additional weakened the NUC’s regulatory oversight.
Insufficient ICT penetration was one other space of concern raised by the performing secretary. Regardless of the rising reliance on digital applied sciences in world training, he famous that the Nigerian college system remains to be lagging in integrating ICT into its tutorial processes.
The performing govt secretary additional recognized governance points, disruptions attributable to frequent industrial actions, and inadequate capacity-building applications for each tutorial and non-teaching workers as extra challenges stalling the expansion of the Fee and the broader Nigerian college system.
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Regardless of these challenges, he acknowledged the progress made beneath his management throughout the transitional interval. These amongst his lists embody the activation and implementation of core curriculum and minimal tutorial requirements (CCMAS), approval of latest universities, and enhancements in high quality assurance with 87% of accredited applications reaching full accreditation standing.
He additionally referred to as for a concerted effort to deal with the highlighted points by authorized reforms, enhanced funding, and strategic integration of ICT to reposition the Nigerian college system for world competitiveness expressing confidence within the incoming Government Secretary’s capacity to deal with these challenges.
In response, Abdullahi Ribadu, the brand new Government Secretary, emphasised that the NUC should introspect to evaluate its relevance in overseeing Nigeria’s universities.
This, he stated, includes evaluating the Fee’s inner processes and constructions to make sure they align with the altering wants of the training sector.
He harassed the significance of self-reflection and adaptableness in sustaining the NUC’s effectiveness as a regulatory physique, including that it will allow the Fee to establish areas for enchancment, replace its insurance policies and procedures, and in the end improve its relevance within the training sector.
“We’ll revisit the legal guidelines that govern our Fee and its interactions with different stakeholders to establish areas of enchancment to strengthen and reposition it for higher service supply,” he stated.
Ribadu additionally pledged to extend entry to school training, noting that entry had been a problem, as two million candidates registered for JAMB however solely 500,000 have been admitted into tertiary establishments.
“Entry to school training nonetheless stays a problem. About 2 million candidates sit for the JAMB examinations yearly, however solely about half 1,000,000 are admitted.
“Not all those that sit for the exams could have handed. Assuming a cross fee of fifty per cent, we are saying about 1 million candidates are certified.
“However out of that quantity, solely about half 1,000,000 are admitted into universities. After all, a small proportion go to polytechnics and faculties of training. So, there may be nonetheless a spot within the admission of candidates.
“We hope to extend entry by increasing present infrastructure and sources in public universities, e- and distance training, in addition to personal sector development, enhancing funding, and exterior assist channels,” he added.
