Former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Peter Okebukola, on Monday said that the standard of the nation’s education system was not falling but is rather enhanced daily by the Commission.
Okebukola made the assertion while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria on the sidelines of the Eighth Convocation and honorary award of doctorate degree of Caleb University, Imota, Lagos.
He said the current NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, was on a revatilisation mission to improve quality in the university system and enhance standards.
According to him, the standards turned out yearly by the Commission are richer and higher in terms of scope than the previous year.
“Standards are the furnishing that should be in the classroom relating to the population of students, proportion of professors, senior lecturers and other lecturers that will teach the courses.
“Every university is expected to subject its student to the standards, as outlined by NUC,” he said.
Okebukola said that while the Commission laid down the expected standards, coverage of the content of the standards varies from one university to the other.
The former NUC boss noted that the content may not be covered as expected in the various public and private universities due to some factors.
He listed the major factors affecting the full implementation of standards as resource handicap which affected provision of needed laboratory equipment for practicals and interruption to academic calendar for the training period.
“At the point of students’ graduation, you will expect graduates from any of the public or private universities to produce the same result, but on account of the militating variables, it is impossible.
“For example, if it is expected to be a four-year programme but there is a strike in-between, the lecturer after resumption, may decide that a 13-week semester be held in three weeks.
“So, the content of the standards are not yet covered for the graduates.
“For our private universities, it is a lot better due to their stable academic calendar, better student teacher ratio and stiffer staff discipline unlike the public universities,” he said.
Okebukola said there were islands of examples where the private universities were doing better in terms of production of quality graduates than the public universities
He, however, noted that the proportion of more experienced Professors in the public university compared to the private university was relatively higher.
According to him, the Professors are usually ready to teach the students and train them to be more better graduates, regardless of all the constraints.
Earlier at the Convocation, Okebukola charged the graduands to maximise their entrepreneurial spirit in helping the nation and their family.
He said that while the university had invested so much in training the students, it was time for them to invest their creative energies in solving the problems of the society.
“Stick to the noble ideas of Caleb University which include Godliness, innovation, service, integrity, teamwork, excellence and creativity.
“I join everyone present to wish you well in the journey of life,” he said.
NAN reports that 478 graduates passed out of the university in the 2018 session as against the 409 graduands last session.
A total of 399 students graduated from its degrees programmes and 79 from postgraduate studies.
Twenty-three students made First Class, 200 students made Second Class Upper Division, 148 bagged Second Class Lower, 28 made Third Class from the undergraduate programme, while 8 students made distinction and 71 had pass in the postgraduate studies.
The best graduating students for the session was Miss Crystabel Nya of the Computer Science Department with a Cumulative Grade Point Aggregate (CGPA) of 4.81.
Mr Julius Adesina of Master of Science Accounting programme with a CGPA of 4.86 is the best graduating student for the postgraduate class of 2018.
