The House of Representatives on Wednesday directed its Committee on Education to meet with the Federal Ministry of Education to review “discriminatory” policy on admission into Nigerian Unity Schools.
The committee is also to engage the National Examinations Council (NECO) on the need to reverse the policy in a way that will guarantee fairness.
The committee is expected to report back to the house on July 2.
The resolution followed a motion by Rep. Victor Ogene (APGA-Anambra), which was adopted when put to vote by the Speaker, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal.
The motion is entitled, “Urgent need to reverse the discriminatory Government Policy on Admission into Nigerian Unity Colleges’’.
Ogene said that the constitution abhorred discrimination of any sort against citizens of the country as enshrined in Section 42(1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
He said the fundamental human rights in the constitution states that no Nigerian child should be denied access to education on the basis of state of origin or any other consideration.
He said the recently released cut-off mark for Federal Government Unity Colleges by the ministry gave candidates from some states undue advantage over others.
According to him, the undue advantage is not only a mockery of the principles of merit and fairness, but also runs contrary to the provisions of the constitution.
“While candidates from Anambra are expected to score at least 139 marks to gain admission, candidates from some other states are expected to score two or three marks for same admission.”
He expressed concern that some states were required to score below 70 marks for admission.
The legislator said the entire South East such as Abia were “curiously required” to score 130; Enugu, 134; Ebonyi, 112; Imo, 138; and Anambra, 139 marks, for same admission.
The lawmaker said that if the discriminatory policy was allowed to stand, illegality would be encouraged, adding that the core values of merit and hardwork would be destroyed in favour of indolence.
Contributing, Rep. Nnenna Ukeje (PDP-Abia) and Nkoyo Toyo (PDP-Cross Rivers), said that the policy was unfair.
They said that the idea of unity schools was meant to bring unity to every part of the country and not disunity.
