THE BRITAIN–NIGERIA EDUCATIONAL TRUST
(Registered Charity No. 1120876)
The Africa Centre, 3rd Floor
38 King Street, LONDON WC2E 8JT
June 11, 2013
Dear Member,
NIGERIA DIGEST - Education Update June 2013
The Nigerian education system has been very prominent in the news during the last 6 weeks and it is considered important to update our members on the current position and activities within the education sector. This 'interim' Digest covers the following issues:-
Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME)
This year's exams involved over 1.7 million candidates, who sat them in late April and early May. They were held in over 3,168 centres in 378 examination towns in Nigeria, and in six foreign countries including Accra, Buea in Cotoneau, London, Jeddah and Johannesburg. Of the grand total of 1,735,720 candidates, only 520,000 will be admitted into tertiary institutions in 2013, leaving the remainder of over 1.2 million without admission this year.
The number of candidates sitting the Paper/Pencil test was 1,629,107 whilst there were 15,008 for the Dual based test and 91,610 for the Computer Based Test (CBT) for the exam. When the results were announced 12,110 candidate's results were actually withheld for possible disciplinary action whilst 68,309 candidates from various centres are undergoing further screening to check on their authenticity. The overall impression is that this year was the best to date for the exams and the exam results; 10 candidates scored 300 marks and above, whilst 127,000 candidates scored between 1 and 159. A complete breakdown of the results shows that 10 candidates scored 300 marks and above, 628 scored between 270-299 marks, 33,115 scored between 250-269 marks, 704,622 scored between 200-249 marks.
Some 40,692 results were invalid. At the beginning of May the JAMD announced in Abuja that 40 centres were involved in cheating during the examination where some candidates paid between N5,000 - N20,000 to be 'allowed' to cheat. An analysis of the candidates who sat the examinations show those 1,670,833 candidates applied to go to universities whilst 28,977 applied to Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, while 28,445 chose the newly established and innovative enterprises institutes. The number of results being closely scrutinised rose massively to 68,309 examination results from the Paper/Pencil and Dual Based tests on suspicion of malpractice perpetrated during the examinations.
UNESCO
Nigeria is one of the 17 countries analysed in the paper entitled "Education for All Global Monitoring Report" by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
According to UNESCO, the country currently keeps almost three-quarters of the income from exporting oil, but is not investing it wisely and today accounts for almost one in five of the world's out-of-school children. According to the new UNESCO report, which was released at the World Economic Forum on Africa held in Cape Town, South Africa from May 8th to10th, 2.4 million children that are out of school in Nigeria could get access to education if the country's natural oil revenue is well managed. Findings of the paper also indicated that Nigeria could raise nearly half a billion US dollars per year for education if 20 per cent of its oil revenue were invested in education. The amount raised would be almost three times the amount Nigeria currently receive in aid for education.
The paper noted these could finance access to primary school for 86 per cent of their out-of-school children or 42 per cent of their out of school adolescents if their natural resources are properly managed.
The UNESCO report also says that Nigeria needs to recruit 200,000 qualified teachers if the country is to reach the Universal Basic Education for all goals by 2015.
Sokoto State Government
The State Governor, Aliyu Wamakko announced that his government has sponsored 150 primary school teachers for post- graduate programmes at the Islamic University in Uganda. They are studying for two years for a Masters programme in Education Management as well as a post- graduate Diploma in Education. In the coming September the Governor said that his administration were planning to sponsor a further 150 primary school teachers for a degree programme in education, also in Uganda.
Universal Basic Education Commission
In Asaba, in Delta State, the acting Executive Secretary has recently been quoted as saying that there are only 10 million children who are out of school at the present time. This seems an almost unbelievable figure as Nigeria has a population of 170 million, 100 million of which are under the age of 25, meaning that far, far more than 10 million children do not attend school. He also said that one of the priority programmes that the government has to introduce involves the integration of the Almajiri education system into the basic education programme.
Almajiri Education System
In a recent meeting with the Senate Committee on Education, the Niger State Governor, Dr Babangida Aliyu, has criticised David Mark, the President of the Senate, on his call for the banning of the Almajiri system. He said that the solution to the system is not to ban because it is not right to ban a culture without offering a replacement. The system itself is decades old and has worked perfectly satisfactorily but the government now wishes to integrate it into the Universal Basic Education programme and negotiations on the subject are ongoing.
The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT)
The NUT has announced that teachers in 18 States of the Federation are to go on strike over an alleged refusal of the States to honour the agreement it had with the union since 2008. The problem dates back several years but basically the agreed 27.5% pay rise has not been forthcoming in the vast majority of States, who claim that they cannot afford it. In the meantime the teachers continue to suffer.
Further updates will be given in the next regular publication of our Nigeria Digest.
With kind regards
Gary Clark
Gary M Clark
Secretary to the Board of Trustees
The Britain-Nigeria Educational Trust
The Africa Centre, 3rd Floor
Secretary to the Board of Trustees
The Britain-Nigeria Educational Trust
The Africa Centre, 3rd Floor
38 King Street, London WC2E 8JT
Telephone: 020 7240 8950 (Office)
Telephone: 020 7240 8950 (Office)
05601 431338 (Direct)
E-mail: education@britain-nigeria.org (Secretariat)