Associate Professor, University of Abuja, Dr Ozohu Sulaiman has called on Vice Chancellors and major stakeholders of tertiary education in Nigeria to make public their position on the new JAMB-cut off which has attracted criticism.
Sulaiman, who was a guest on Channels Television Programme, Hard Copy, said,”My position is ambivalent. I’m not excited by the pronouncement of JAMB, neither impressed by the criticisms that have trailed it”, he said, adding, “Where are the Vice chancellors? Where are the other stakeholders? Why are they not talking to Nigerians about their level of involvement in this decision this controversy?”
Also on the programme, the Head of Department, Mass Communications, Baze University, Dr Abiodun Adeniyi, said the cut-off mark is not a controversy but a conversation that would growth in Nigerian Education sector.
“I don’t see it much as a controversy but as a conversation on how to remedy the problem we are having in our educational sector. I think that at the end of the day, there will be a resolution of all the altercation and Nigeria’s education process will definitely be better.
“For a society to grow, the private initiative cannot be undermined. I think there should be more deregulation in the education sector so that private participation can be better encouraged. This will solve many of the problems that we are having.”
Dr Abiodun Adeniyi
Sulaiman speaking on the standards of private universities as regards the cut-off mark being lowered said, ASUU should maintain the standard across board, whether private or public university. He noted that the relationship between both the private and public education sector is mutually exclusive as most lectures in private universities are from the public universities.
“Before deregulation of the higher institution sector, the public universities have managed to establish a standard. Whether the standard is acceptable or not is debatable. But at least, there has been a standard before the coming in of the private universities.
“That is why, when the private universities came on board, they relied heavily on the support of lecturers from the public universities to take off. And of course, it is not as if they maintained standard in their parent university only to provide support to private universities to lower standards. That is not the case. So, when ASUU is insisting on maintaining standards, the standard should be across board.”
Adeniyi, stressing the power of the private sector said, “some of the best universities in the world are actually private. But, they did not grow in one day, it took time for them to gestate and get to level in which we celebrate them now.
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