The Federal Ministry of Education has been directed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to ensure the inclusion of graduates of the National Open University in the National Youth Service Corps scheme.
The President also ordered the admittance of NOUN Law graduates to participate in Law School in the country.
According to him, this was done to ensure for equal opportunities for all.
He made the disclosure through the Deputy Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Biodun Saliu, at the 13th convocation ceremony of NOUN on Saturday, held at the University’s Convocation Arena, Jabi, Abuja.
He said, “With the changing demographics of our great nation, the government has recognised the importance of allowing NOUN graduates to participate in the NYSC scheme.
“The doors of the Law School are now open to the graduates, ensuring equal opportunities for all. Any remaining concerns or uncertainties should be promptly addressed by the Federal Ministry of Education.
“We will continue to do this in order to improve quality, access, and affordability.
“Government is, therefore, committed through the Federal Ministry of Education and the NUC to provide the enabling environment to ensure a good delivery of this mode of education in Nigeria.”
Graduates of NOUN seeking admission into the Nigerian Law School have faced whole lot of challenges in the past, one of which was a ruling by a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt squashing a suit by the prospective lawyers wanting to gain admittance to the said school.
However, NOUN graduates in 2017 were earlier assured by the former vice chancellor of the institution, Abdallah Adamu, that they would soon be able to partake in the National Youth Service Corps and the Nigerian Law School like their counterparts in regular institutions.
“The fact is that the National University Commission law doesn’t allow those who do part-time studies to do NYSC, and the original Act that established NOUN says we offer courses by correspondence, and that is the expression NYSC is using to say ‘if it’s a correspondence course, then it is part-time, if it’s part-time, then the students are not eligible for NYSC,” he said in an interview.
President Bola Tinubu, at the event, had earlier assured Nigerians that his administration will continue to support and promote the Open and Distance Learning (ODL), which is synonymous with NOUN, to enhance access to higher education in the country.
Join our WhatsApp community via https://goquick.ly/cj8q2 for instant and latest news updates.
