The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), has protested the exclusion of its graduates from the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) scheme.
The vice chancellor of NOUN, Prof Abdalla Adamu appealed to the National Universities Commission (NUC) to intervene and prevail on the authorities of the NYSC to allow NOUN students participate in the scheme to enable them contribute their quota to nation building.
Adamu, who led a full squad of NOUN’s management to the National Universities Commission (NUC) in Abuja on Tuesday, said the exclusion was contrary to the promotion of patriotism and unity in the country.
He said it was an irony that the most inclined of the nation’s graduates were excluded from a programme designed to engender patriotism and unity. According to him, “It is national news that NOUN graduates are excluded from participation in the NYSC scheme, although exclusion letters are often provided.
According to him, “In NOUN, we train graduates with national dampened outlook in Nigeria, and can boast to be the only university in Nigeria where people from all the LGAs in Nigeria are represented as students. “However, this nationalistic outlook cultivated by our students is dampened”.
“As a result of a perspective in the interpretation of the NOUN Act, the Council of Legal Education, CLE, perceives our mode of instruction as correspondence and part-time and therefore excludes our students from participation in the law school programmes.
“Thus, we have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that NOUN is an Open Distance Learning, ODL, institution and part of the large network of such institutions all over the world provide accessible, affordable and equitable education to millions of individuals who would work and learn at the same time due to their circumstances.
“We are praying to the Executive Secretary to draw the attention of the CLE to the fact that NOUN as an ODL institution, does not equate to part-time or correspondence institution.
“In order to make things easier for everyone, we have even accepted the NUC recommendation to halt admission into the programme until we streamline our activities with CLE.”, he said
While responding to the VC, the Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Abdulrashee said that it is a policy of Council of Legal Education, CLE to deny certain category of students from going to Law School. NOUN is an ODL institution, this is the future of tertiary education in the world. “NOUN has come with genuine defence.
He noted that the commission will have to adjust to this reality of this open and distance learning which is threatening the character and nature of our tertiary institutions in the country. Digital revolution is one of the two revolutions of the recent decade that are changing the world.
Recall, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed who was a sabbatical professor in NOUN before his appointment,