By Omoyeni Ojeifo
Dr. Tunji Alausa, the Minister of Education, has defended the Federal Government’s decision to exempt candidates seeking admission into Colleges of Education from writing the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
He described the move as part of broader reforms aimed at reversing declining enrolment and expanding access to higher education by teachers.
The Minister said this while responding to questions on policy on Channels TV programme, “Politics Today” anchored by Seun Okinbaloye and monitored by Persecondnews on Tuesday evening.
Alausa said the decision was backed by data showing that a large number of Colleges of Education and polytechnics were attracting very low admission interest from candidates across the country.
“We do all these things based on data, not just based on abstraction, We looked at the numbers, we looked at the enrolment trends and we realised that we have all these institutions but young Nigerians are not going there,” he said.
According to him, Nigeria’s youthful population makes education reform critical to national development and economic growth.
“We have this huge pool of young Nigerians we need to turn into demographic dividend for the country,” he said.
Explaining the rationale behind the new admission policy, Alausa disclosed that more than 80 per cent of Colleges of Education recorded fewer than 100 first-choice applicants.
“Today, we have about 255 Colleges of Education in the country, both private and public. 214 of those colleges had less than 100 people choosing them as their first choice. That represented about 84 per cent of the total Colleges of Education,” he said.
The minister added that similar trends were observed in polytechnics and monotechnics offering agriculture and non-technology programmes.
“We had about 772 polytechnics and monotechnics in the country. 480 of those polytechnics had less than 100 people choosing them as first choice,” he explained.
According to Alausa, the Federal Government had already introduced a “dual mandate” system in federal Colleges of Education.
This mandate will allow students to obtain both the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) and a Bachelor’s degree in Education within five years.
“Anybody that goes to any of our Colleges of Education now can do three years NCE and continue for another two years to finish a Bachelor’s degree in Education,” he explained.
He said the reform had already led to a significant increase in enrolment into Colleges of Education.
“That has really now put Colleges of Education into sustainability for the future. We’ve seen significant impact in the number of people going there,” the minister said.
Alausa further stated that the exemption from UTME was designed to remove barriers preventing young Nigerians from accessing tertiary education.
“The mantra now is that we want to give knowledge to young Nigerians, educate them, make them productive to themselves, their communities and the nation at large,” he added.
The Minister also linked the reforms to the Federal Government’s target of building a skilled workforce capable of supporting President Bola Tinubu’s ambition of growing Nigeria into a one trillion dollar economy.
Persecondnews had reported the Minister’s recent announcement on Monday that NCE applicants are now exempt from the UTME for admission into any College of Education in the country.
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