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Standardizing Nigerian Tertiary Education And The Need To Establish Board Of Graduate Examinations By Prof. S.K Odaibo British Missionaries introduced Education and Literary writing into Nigeria in the 19th century. National University Commission (NUC) moderates and approves academic curricula for Nigerian Universities And Polytechnics. Professor Jubril Aminu was the first executive secretary of the commission which was established in 1962. In recent times the quality of products emerging from these institutions are of great concern to many academicians. One major factor of concern is the large number of student’s intake at every tertiary level that does not match the available qualified teachers. This disparity is most apparent in science disciplines where close supervision is most crucial. In 2012, the country had 130 universities and 30 polytechnics owned by both federal and state governments, each turning out an average of 1500 graduates annually. A good percentage of these are poorly skilled, speak little or extremely poor grammatical English and are not employable even where the vacancies are available. Downsizing the total admission figures by 60% is appropriate at this time. Factors responsible for poor performance in our universities start from elementary school level. Nigeria has approximately 30 million elementary school pupils, with inadequate teaching facilities and teachers. Some schools have no writing desk, teaching materials and can be reached only by footpaths. 30% of the elementary school teachers have no qualification whatsoever and abscond from classes 50% of the time because they are not happy with their remunerations and as a result of this, pupils are not well trained, lacking fundamental basic skills and become poor candidates for secondary schools. In certain circumstances the common entrance to secondary school admissions test, does not evaluate the candidate effectively because of practices that directly allow the pupils who are not properly prepared to score high marks. Another factor is the rush by parents to place their children in grades that are too high for their age. This leads to poor performance. Poor nutrition does not permit for the proper development of the brain before the age of 5 years, when the brain reaches its adult size. Some schools are overcrowded and lack recreational facilities and sports playing fields. Schools no longer maintain farms, which are revenue yielding sources and nutrition for the schools. Frequent semester interruptions due to academic staff disagreements with governments over university standards also contributed to poor performance. Hopefully, issues of this nature will now be permanently taken care of. Where new Graduates are not properly equipped to impart adequate knowledge as teachers, a way out is to tap into the national repository of old scholars, Retired teachers, permanent secretaries, administrators, academicians and technicians who can be recalled to offer supportive and subsidiary assistance to elementary and secondary schools and giving supplementary remunerations. These categories of people can also play the dual role of training the trainers. In this way, the standard of teaching and the quality of apprehension of the students will be enhanced to obtain the required results. To achieve this, the physical environment of these schools must be improved and adequate teaching and writing material provided. Adequate grants to private schools would enable them to upgrade standards and produce good products. The joined admissions and matriculation board (JAMB) for universities and polytechnics was established in 1979 under the chairmanship of Professor O. O. Akinkugbe with Mr. Angulu as registrar to standardize and sanitize admissions into Nigerian universities. The role played by the body is commendable considering the large number of candidates they need to handle, which at the moment averages 1.2 million annually. By this, the West African Examination Council, no longer becomes the sole determinant for entry into Nigerian universities. There are incidences of abuse and sidetracking the body to secure admission for candidates. This however does not constitute a threat to the overall performance of the body. Nevertheless in recent times, universities have been given the option to re-evaluate candidates who have successfully met J.A.M.B score for admission. This must not be allowed to become another channel of sidetracking the good role of J.A.M.B. What this means therefore is that eventually each university is responsible for admitting its students within the standards established by J.A.M.B. However the products or graduates turned out from these universities or polytechnics are not assessed and standardized by a central evaluation body, giving rise to graduates who under perform within the larger society. These calls for the establishment of Nigerian university graduate board. Nigerian University Graduate Board. A separate examination board to re-evaluate all graduating students from both universities and polytechnics is necessary to ensure that all Nigerian graduates have met a set standard. Any graduate not certificated with this body will be assumed to have under-qualified and can therefore not be credited as a full graduate. This board should be national in outlook and cover all disciplines and professions, such as the graduate board of medicine, the graduate board of engineering, science and Humanities. Where such a body already exists, the duplication would not be required. Conclusion Standardizing and formatting graduates from all universities and polytechnics is a necessity in order to ensure that the basic standard of requirements have been met by them and are said to be sufficiently equipped with knowledge and skill to meet the requirement of the society. Failing which, the country will continue to produce large numbers of unemployable graduates and universities responsible for producing such graduates ,would be required to upgrade their curriculum, facilities, reduce student in-take and employ qualified academic staffs.
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