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The Registrar and Chief Executive of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Professor Josiah Ajiboye dismissed claims in some quarters about falling standards of education in Nigeria, insisting that the quality of education in Nigeria is among the best in the world.
Ajiboye spoke on Tuesday at a one-day retreat on the State of Education in Nigeria organised by the Education Correspondent Association of Nigeria (ECAN) in Abuja.
While noting that the graduates from Nigerian institutions are sought after, around the world, he urged Nigerians to stop portraying the educational sector in a bad light on the global scene, saying Nigerians should always emphasise the positive values of the sector.
He said that in spite of the challenges the education sector faced with the quality of graduates produced could compete favourably all over the world.
“Nigeria’s education is among the best all over the world as our graduates are sort after globally.
“Nigeria’s education is among one of the best in the world as of today, if not, why are Nigerian professionals going outside the country?
“You see thousands of Nigerians everywhere you go; Nigerian graduates are well sorted out for.
“Even as of today, if you look at the quality of our graduates, they are people that can compete with other people all over the world. People will always tell you the standard is falling but who is setting the standards?
“Even this year alone, I have signed letters of professional standing for over 260 Nigerians going to teach in Canada alone and as of this morning; we have a letter from the UK from the head of their teaching council.
“She sends a message for a pro-former letter of professional standing because they want to start taking Nigerian teachers massively.
“If anybody is telling you are not doing well, though we have our challenges in all these situations, we still have the best graduates,” he said.
Ajiboye called on the media to help the country in amplifying the positive values of the sector so that foreign countries would be able to come in, explore and invest.
He, therefore, emphasised the need to change the narrative by not dwelling on the negatives capable of overwhelming the country.
The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, noted that the Federal Government gave approval for the existence of state-owned tertiary institutions in order to address issues surrounding the “shortage of admission spaces.”
He said the duty of JAMB as a regulatory agency was to set minimum benchmarks for admission by institutions.
Oloyede who was represented by the Head of public affairs of the board, Dr Fabian Benjamin, called for the introduction of a National Education Insurance Scheme to address the problem of access, especially in state universities.
“The Federal Government put in place state institutions to address the need for admission access because one of the major problems is spaces in our institutions and most candidates cannot afford these institutions.
He called for the introduction of a National Education Insurance Scheme to address the problem of access, especially in state universities.
“The country should be able to support the education scheme whereby a certain percentage can be paid by the Federal Government so that subscribers can attend private institutions,” he said.
On the issue of lowering cut-off marks, he said that the cut-off mark was a minimum benchmark that institutions must not go below which did not affect education standards.
He commended the association on their roles in projecting the image of the country, especially in the education sector.
Meanwhile, the Registrar, National Examination Council (NECO), Prof. Ibrahim Wushishi, who spoke on the global acceptability of the NECO certificate, said its certificate had global recognition through an educational assessment body.
“NECO is a strong member of the International Association for Educational Assessment and we play a vital role in the global assessment of examination.
“So candidates that took their NECO examinations are being admitted into secondary and tertiary institutions in foreign countries like in the U.S, Canada, Germany, India, China, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Sweden and they write the council to authenticate the results from NECO.
“In fact, between January to August 2022, we received 490 requests from more than 50 countries across the world to confirm the authenticity of our results,” he said.
Wushishi, however, advised Nigerians not to take the education sector for granted, saying that the sector should be projected in a good light to the world.
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