Delta Education Summit: Stakeholders seek scrapping of JAMB, NUC

·         Okowa laments murder of Ubulu-Uku monarch

·         Journalists decry discrimination in distribution of summit papers

Stakeholders in education on Tuesday at the start of the Delta state education summit 2016 with the theme: “Leapfrogging Education in Delta State,” took very critical positions about measures to be taken to sanitise the education sector in the country.

Governor Okowa with Representative of Aare Babalola at the summit.

At the event which ended Wednesday, Professor John Onaowho while calling for the practice of true federalism instead of the current skewed federalism in the country, also called for the scrapping of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the Nigeria Universities commission (NUC).

Onaowho said that the skewed nature of our federalism has constituted a major hindrance to educational advancement in the country, saying that the practice of true federalism will provide the necessary autonomy to states to freely pursue their educational pursuits at their respective pace.

He said: “True federalism should also be extended to education. Not to do so is to make the country go into retrogression. For Nigeria to move forward and advance the placement of education on the concurrent list for the federal and state government should removed and education made the responsibility of the state governments only. Nigeria’s over centralized system must be decentralized.”

Profssor Onaowho also canvassed strongly the scrapping of JAMB, arguing that the board is constituting a limitation to the progress and survival of universities in Nigeria. Also, he advocated for the scrapping of the NUC, which he said is just doing nothing but usurping the functions of the professional bodies that are better placed to monitor standards of courses offered by universities.

A professor and former vice chancellor of a private university in Nigeria (name not immediately known), in supporting Professor Onaowho’s submissions disclosed that NUC officials lacked the expertise to carry out registration in the universities. “NUC has out lived its usefulness, it should be scrapped,” the professor said.

However, a clergy man, and reverend gentleman, whose name also could not be immediately identified disagrred with Onaowho’s call saying that “If NUC should be scrapped; ASUU also should be scrapped because ASUU is the reason parents have embraced the private tertiary institutions because of the union’s resort to incessant strikes.

Meanwhile, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa who declared the summit open decried the circumstances leading to the death of the Obi of Ubulu-Uku, Obi Akaeze III. After leading the congregation to observe a minute silence in honour of the late monarch, called on all Deltans and Nigerians to be vigilant on matters of security to lives and provide useful information that will help to detect and prevent crimes. He lamented the monarch’s death, saying it is an unfortunate one in very challenging circumstances.

Meanwhile, journalists had very serious challenges getting papers presented at the summit on Tuesday, as officials of government in charge of the programme resorted to discrimination in the choice of media journalists who should be given copies of the materials.

Accordingly, most of the papers presented were given to a particular set of journalists, including the governor’s speech.