The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has announced the cancellation of the interview test for National Common Entrance Examination, NCCE, into Federal Government colleges. This came as former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, yesterday, stressed the urgent need to overhaul the education system in the country to avoid total collapse of the sector. A statement issued by the Federal Ministry of Education yesterday in Abuja, said the cancellation of the test for NCCE would take effect from the 2017/2018 academic year. The statement signed by the Deputy Director, Press, Bem Goong, said the minister could not establish the rationale for a second test for NCCE organised by the National Examination Council, NECO. “The second test is an unnecessary additional financial burden on parents/guardians,” it quoted Mr. Adamu as saying. “The era of multiple examinations attracting prohibitive fees cannot be accommodated by the Buhari administration, especially against the backdrop of government’s determination to increase access to education as a platform for breaking the cycle of poverty,” the statement read. It said Adamu had directed NECO to strengthen its examination processes with a view to achieving quality and credible examination for admission into unity schools at the first test. The statement said the minister argued that multiple examinations did not necessarily translate to the admission of quality pupils in secondary schools. Mr. Adamu maintained that the 2016/2017 academic year remained the effective date for the ban on Post-UTME, advising vice-chancellors to adhere strictly to the policy in the overriding public interest. Meanwhile, former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, yesterday, stressed the urgent need to overhaul the education system in the country to avoid total collapse of the sector. Ezekwesili, who stated this in Abuja, at the 2016 Nigerian Education Innovation Summit organised by Education Partnership Centre, EPC, said education left in the hands of policy makers was problematic. She said: “Systems are very important; when you have system, then you have a higher probability of good outcomes. ‘’If your systems are not functional, then you would need to overhaul them, because disfunctional systems, can’t give you any good outcome. “When we talk about education, you have to look at it as a system that has input, output, outcome and your measurement of the impact that the outcome really stand for. ‘’When you do that, you will realise that we have been in serious trouble since the time that I was even Minister of Education. The Managing Director of EPC, Dr. Modupe Adefeso-Olateju, urged the Federal Government to scale up educational intervention in Nigeria and ensure every child in Nigeria benefitted from it. “Every stakeholders in the sector must ensure that every child in Nigeria benefits from successfully tested education interventions by focusing on efforts to scale up impact,’’ he said.
Post a Comment