NUT cautions against policy
THE Senate Committee on Education Thursday subjected the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, to a series of interrogation over the planned scrap of the National Examination Council (NECO) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB).
Wike, however, explained that the Federal Government had not arrived at a decision to scrap the two examination bodies.
At a meeting, presided over by Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, the minister blamed mischief-makers for media reports that NECO and JAMB had been scrapped.
Chukwumerije had expressed worries that the Federal Government could so suddenly scrap the two agencies even when the laws that set them up were still very much in place.
The uncertainty over the fate of JAMB and NECO Thursday in Asaba, Delta State capital, also drew the ire of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT).
National President of NUT, Michael Alogba Olukoya, told reporters after a meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) in Asaba that teachers in states yet to commence full implementation of the 27.5 per cent Teachers' Enhance Allowance (TEA), as well as states that have refused to pay the N18,000 minimum wage to teachers have been ordered to commence strike with effect from June 1 this year.
Chukwumerije said: "The Senate is very interested in what happens to the education of our people and education generally because these two institutions monitor access and quality of education in the country. We are particularly interested because there are implications for the people should the two institutions be scrapped. There will be the issue of unemployment and there will be the issue of cost."
In his submissions, Wike said although the Stephen Orosanye committee that was set up to look into the cases of overlap of agencies had recommended the scrap of NECO and JAMB, government was still in the process of decision taking.
He said the white paper committee set up to review the recommendations was still working.
Olukoya, who read out the association's statement, which was jointly signed by himself; the Secretary General, Obong I.J. Obong; and National Publicity Secretary, Suleiman Gambari, explained that the move was for fiscal expediency and so cannot be in the best interest of stakeholders in the education sector.
The NUT president regretted that the recommendation of the Oronsaye panel to scrap NECO in particular amounted to subjugating national interest of the country to sub-regional or global slavery.
He said that NECO does not only represent a national heritage but also the patriotic interest of teachers, pupils and parents under the exclusive control of the Nigerian government.
According to him, it was wrong to subject the primary interest of Nigerians to the sub-regional interest of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) as a result of the expediency of fiscal consideration.
He added that NECO should remain as an alternative and competing examination body in Nigeria, subject however, to possible re-organisation as to its efficiency and effectiveness to carry out its mandate.
Olukoya said: "This also applies to the JAMB and its UMTE, which is established to promote egalitarian admission policy in our universities.
