Tertiary institutions and the entry age question

WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER

info@medaner.com, justme4justice@yahoo.com

About four years ago, the country woke up to the issue of concerns raised about entry age into the Nigeria tertiary institutions. Then, it appeared as if some people in government were seeking relevance; wanted to be seen to push some policy into the national domain. But, because it was an idea whose age has expired, the proposition quietly died off. Most universities cleverly ignored it while a few, few enough to be ignored, partially implemented it.

Now, four years have passed, and suddenly, the can has been opened again, dusted from under the carpet where it has been buried and the promoters, whether the same old ones or new or both want it to once again be debated in the public for possible adoption. As a nation, we do have a history when it comes to the topic on the table, and our history did not deviate at all from global learnings about the same issue.

There was a time when you cannot enroll a child in primary school if the child has not attained the age of six, and because most of the time, there may not be paper evidence of the prescribed age, the child must be able to characteristically touched his or her left ear with their right hand across the head. You hardly can beat the standard; so, almost all admitted pupils into primary one would average six years old.

Apparently, by that calculation, it is expected that the pupils would graduate through stages and classes to enrolling into the university or any other tertiary institutions approximately at the age of eighteen. Consequently, this has become a national norm with us through ages and transformations. We grew from graduating at the ages of 22 and 23 and getting automatic jobs to graduating at the age of 26 because of series of factors, including scarcity of admission spaces in our universities as a result of carrying capacity and overpopulation of admission seekers into limited schools, repeated strike actions by university lecturers and host of other factors peculiar to our system, and then join a long queue of job seekers till past 30 years, only for prospective employers to peg qualifying age at 27 years. Everything has changed except that we want to retain the school age entrance status quo.

How did it all begin? Was there any research that confirmed children below the age of six would, after being enrolled, have their numerical, cognitive and non-cognitive abilities and skills negatively impaired? No. There was none; we apparently adopted it because other countries were doing it. Note, this was almost a century ago. Funny enough, we did not adopt it from our colonial lords who deviated from all other Organisation for Economic Cooperation and  Development (OECD) nations to adopt between 4 to 5.1 years school entry age for pupils in the United Kingdom.

And there was a research carried out by Christian Dustmann and  Thomas Cornelissen in 2019 to understudy the effects of early school enrollments in child development. Primary education starts at age 6 or 7 in most OECD countries, but in the UK, children start primary school at the age of 4 or 5. The research exploits local variation in school entry rules in the UK to investigate the effects of schooling at an early age on cognitive and non-cognitive development. It finds that early schooling boosts both cognitive and non-cognitive skills up until the age of 11. These effects tend to be strongest for boys from disadvantaged family backgrounds.

The study finds that, rather than being harmful, early schooling increases a range of cognitive and non-cognitive skills, in particular for boys from disadvantaged backgrounds. An important finding is that the large differences between boys from advantaged and disadvantaged family backgrounds can be substantially reduced by starting primary school one term earlier.

Here in Nigeria, we have seen countless numbers of 14 and 15 years old topping their classes with over 17 and 18 years classmates. We have seen these younger students competing far better than the government preferred age students. Now, the question is, if a 15 years old would sit for WASSCE and score all round As unaided, and also conveniently score above 300 in UTME examination, while the older students are struggling trailing the former behind, should we consider the 15 years old student immature for that stage of education?

Here is another fact. In 2023, the highest scorer in the JAMB UTME, Miss Umeh Kamsiyochukwu, with a score of 360 out of 400 was 16 years old. In 2019, Ezeunala Ekene Franklin scored 347 out of 400. He was only 15 years old at the time. That is the story of the exam over the years. The younger candidates are setting the pace and instead of recognising the strength in their capabilities, we want to draw them down. And why are those responsible for policy making not interested in real facts staring them in the face?

We are in a different era now. And it is popularly called the jet age; a 2 years old is almost now ready to engage in what previously 5 years olds would not contemplate. It is also dubbed the computer age, as the rate of child development has soared and a sensible national system must prepare itself to soar with them. We must engage all instruments to harvest their driving force, their inputs to the benefit of the country which needs all help, especially from within.

It is necessary to point out that the national education system is collapsing not because the students are younger or immature. There is no research trace to the age of students contributing to the momentum rot in our institution. What we are seeing now are the consequences of government failures. Admissions are now generally for sale to the highest bidders in our schools, except you are willing to accept the irrelevant courses, chances of admission diminishes with the diminishing financial capacity of the students and their parents or sponsors.

And once the admission is given, what is the quality of the training we give our undergraduates? Enough to make them unemployable? Or when the employers complain that our universities turn out unemployable graduates, is it not because the system is designed to train students who spend years reading to pass examinations as the only essence of going to university?

We parade institutions and colleges of engineering where undergraduates learn nothing but theories for four or more years because workshops and laboratories are either unavailable or non functional. We are not doing anything to address effectively money-for-mark syndrome that has become the hallmark of Nigeria tertiary institutions and even spreading into lower educational levels in the country. The slogan is, every lecturer has a price and every course can be sorted. We are not doing anything about such serious problems as a priority.

Are the supposed underaged undergraduates responsible for the incessant tertiary institutions staff strike actions? Are they responsible for the government’s inability to effectively fund, monitor and evaluate the performance of the schools? Are they responsible for the continuous adaptation of ancient teaching modules? No. Why then, are we ignoring apparently priority problems of the sector to be pursuing shadow? Is it to create a semblance of being seen working harder?

Back to the argument. It will tantamount to running backward for us at this material time to enforce any unreasonable and unattainable university entry age. It is a progression and ultimately, the decision to start a child in elementary school at age 4 or 5 should take into account the individual child’s readiness, developmental stage, and the specific educational opportunities available. It is also important to consider the child’s overall well-being and long-term educational success.

In a digitalised world that we are now, the age-barrier policy would drag Nigeria backward. Moreover, universities compete for the best candidates in their admissions process. Age should become a non issue when a candidate has proven to be capable to cope academically. These same students have for a minimum of ten years run shoulders with others from their various schools, so much that thought of their capacity to cope becomes a non issue. Here, we all need to remember that at inception, the Obafemi Awolowo University, in its wisdom, prescribed no age limit.

I can not fathom the reason why a nation with over 20.2 million out-of-school children, and struggling to reduce the figure by striving to absorb more into schools will suddenly say, you are not allowed into the university as a student if you are not 18 years old. So, what happens to the young girls who have completed secondary education at age 15? By the logic of the age-barrier policy, these teenage girls should perhaps, be roaming the streets for the next three years, getting pregnant and constituting nuisance, until their future path is derailed? Is that what the proponents and supporters of the ill-conceived policy want in this modern era?