Stakeholders have called on the Federal Ministry of Education to obey the high court judgment on cut off marks for students seeking admission into Unity Schools across the country.
The stakeholders made the call in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.
NAN recalls that a human rights lawyer, Mr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, had instituted a suit against the Federal Government and the Minister of Education challenging the prescribed different cut off marks for different states based on candidates’ gender and their states of origin.
Agbakoba had argued that the decision of the defendants violates the candidates’ fundamental rights to freedom from discrimination guaranteed by section 42(1) of the 1999 Constitution.
The Convener, Save Public Education Campaign, Mrs Vivian Bello said the court judgment was a welcome development as it would provide a uniform admission requirements to candidates seeking admission into unity colleges notwithstanding their gender, states of origin and ethnicity.
“For many decades, countless brilliant school children in Nigeria, who worked hard to pass entrance examinations into Unity Colleges, have watched petrified as the places they rightfully secured in these schools are denied them.
“But others who scored far less than them are admitted into these schools in the name of quota system.
“This is an orchestrated injustice against young school children and many of them leave with the impact for many years.
“Without any doubt, these young children are being made victims of a terribly faulty state policy.
“A policy that is not only discriminatory and unjustly excludes but worse still, seemingly punishes hard work and brilliance,” she said.
Bello said that the discrepancies in cut off marks would always leave the children with lifelong negative impact, bitterness and anger against the country and society that operates and condones such absurdity.
“The NGO therefore commends the courage and instrumentality of the judiciary in quashing this absurd and unjust practice as we pointedly hold that all children across the country should enjoy equal rights, privileges and treatments.’’
She said that children should not be discriminated against or excluded from a process, position, opportunity or privilege as a result of the state they came from, saying “intelligence is not determined by state of origin’’.
Also, the Secretary, Workers and Youth Solidarity Network, Mr Dammy Owot commended the court judgment as it would give the students equal opportunity to gain entrance into federal colleges.
Owot advised that beyond the issue of cut off marks, children should be exposed to functional and quality education that must be free at all levels.
“Until this is done, the issue of disparity in cut off marks caused arbitrarily by differences in the quality of education at the geo-political zones can be totally resolved,” he said.
In the same vein, the Policy Advisor, Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA), Mrs Odinakachi Ahanonu said that equity should be promoted in every facet of live including the education sector.
Ahanonu said that since school curriculum and minimum requirement for teachers were uniform, then discrepancies in the cut off mark was unnecessary.
“The judgment passed by federal high court on uniform cut off mark for all unity school is quite impressive because if we begin to say that we need to consider some set of people to have a reduced cut off mark, is to drag the education system that is already in a an emergency situation to death.
“In this context, not making the cut off mark uniform will not be fair in any way we put it. It is no point trying to twist the narratives.
“It is shameful and a slap on our education system that a student will have to score 139, and another need just four marks in an examination to gain admission into same school.
“Our curriculum is uniform and also when it comes to teacher’s recruitment, we have a uniform standard of a minimum requirement of NCE and if all these are uniformed, why are we trying to marginalise one part of the region and promote other region?
“The court injunction to have a uniform cut off mark should be accepted and promoted, not only in unity schools but across all schools in Nigeria including JAMB,” she said.
Ahanonu said that the implication of refusing the court injunction would amount to producing mediocrity into our society and could affect the child performance in the long run.
NAN
