“YOU ARE NOT DOING IT RIGHTLY”- MAYE CHALLENGES FGN ON TERTIARY EDUCATION

Dr. Ramon Adedoyin 

Renowned business mogul and founder and chancellor of one of Nigeria’s foremost private universities, Oduduwa University, Ipetumodu, Ife North Local Government, Dr Ramon Atobatele Adedoyin, the Maye of Yorubaland has suggested that in order to ensure that more candidates are admitted to Nigerian Universities yearly, the federal government should sponsor poor candidates by paying their school fees in private universities.

Dr Adedoyin was speaking against the backdrop of a recent statistics published which stated that out of close to 2 million candidates writing the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exams (UTME), more than a million would be denied admission not because they are not qualified but because the present carrying capacity of Nigeria tertiary institutions especially public institutions is not enough to cater for the teeming population of youths seeking admission each year.

According to the statistics, around 1.99 million candidates put in for UTME, but the current carrying capacity of Nigerian Universities, Monotechnics, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education and Innovation Schools is 750,000 which leaves a shortfall of over 1.2 million candidates who will have to join other candidates to jostle for the limited admission spaces again next year or look for ramshackle Universities in neighbouring countries or fall prey to illegal Universities proliferated in Nigeria as listed by the National  Universities Commission (NUC) recently.

The statistics also stated that while most public tertiary institutions especially the federal ones already admit above their carrying capacity, none of the private universities is able to admit up to its carrying capacity because of exorbitant school fees charged by private institutions in Nigeria.

Adedoyin suggested that a way out of this recurring problem is for government to provide access by sponsoring poor students in private institutions. He noted that the carrying capacities of private universities are not met because they charge an average of 400,000 naira which most parents cannot afford.

According to him, the government needs not give direct cash to private institutions for such sponsorships; rather such sponsorship can be by ways of building laboratories, libraries, hostels as well as other facilities which shall be equivalent of the school fees charged by the private universities.  “Private schools pay heavily on salaries and provision of facilities”, He noted.

He also advised that rather than approving more private universities thereby proliferating tertiary education, the federal government should create access to private universities through sponsorships and other incentives.

The educationist added that though the minimum qualification to lecture in a standard University is a doctorate degree, many of the existing universities are understaffed with PhD holders and as such there is a need to ensure that all the existing universities are working optimally before approving more universities.

“As a proprietor of a University outside Nigeria, I am able to compare and contrast ways Universities are approved in Nigeria and outside Nigeria. New Universities outside come first as colleges of well established Universities. It therefore does not make Universities to look proliferated". He concluded.