By Taiye Odewale Abuja
After many years of denial, the Senate yesterday cleared the coast of participation in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and Nigerian Law School for graduates of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) by passing for third reading, the National Open University of Nigeria Act (Amendment) Bill, 2017. Graduates of NOUN, regardless of their ages, had been denied participation in the mandatory one year national service with their counterparts from the conventional universities just as those who read law from other universities, were not allowed to be admitted into the Nigeria Law School. But the Senate in its adoption of report on Amendment Bill to the Act submitted to it by its Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFund cleared the hurdle for graduates of the open institution to enjoy similar privileges like their counterparts from regular universities.
Th e committee, in the adopted report, read by its chairman, Senator Jibrin Barau (APC Kano North), explained that amendments made in the Act were geared towards changing the negative perception of the public about NOUN in respect of the word correspondence, which “gives the impression that the university is not a full time one and as such, seen as a part-time.
“Th ese two concepts, correspondence and part-time signifi cantly aff ect the way the public views the academic programme cum courses run by the university which has been the reason why Law graduates of the school are not allowed into the Nigerian Law School as well as the reason for the non inclusion of graduates of the school into the NYSC Scheme on yearly basis”, he said. He explained further that inclusion of ICT as another means of tuition in the operations of the school was another amendment made to the subsisting Act as a way of upgrading the current teaching model which depends critically on virtual learning and students’ individual research. Th e committee reasoned that this will further deal with the challenge of limited access in the Tertiary Education Sector and by extension, bring the National Open University of Nigeria Act in line with the requirements of the Universities Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Act 2012.
It added that the amendment is apt, timely and in tune with global best practices by repositioning NOUN for better service delivery and help in producing quality graduates for the Nigerian society. However, the report of the committee signed by 12 out of 21 members has triggered move by the Senate leadership to reshuffl e composition of the 68 standing committees. Senate President, Bukola Saraki gave the indication when his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu drew his attention to the signing page of the report
