Don’t make Maths, English Language compulsory – Okorocha tells Education bodies, institutions

FROM ANOLU VINCENT, OWERRI
Imo state Governor Rochas Okorocha has called on Universities in the country and other relevant bodies to drop the idea of making English language and mathematics compulsory for admissions into Higher Institutions, adding that making these two subjects compulsory for admissions had frustrated many brilliant students who could, for one reason or the other, not pass the two subjects, out of their ambitions to have higher education.
Governor Okorocha who made the call when the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the National Examination Council, (NECO), Professor Abdulrashid Garba visited him at the Government House Owerri, with his team, stressed that the time had come for all the concerned bodies in the country to help our education and also help students with the ambition of pursuing higher education, by dropping the demand that a child must credit English and Mathematics to gain admission.
He noted that because of the rule that made it mandatory that Nigerian students must credit English and Mathematics before they could proceed to higher institutions, some students indulge in some unconventional activities to pass them and when they succeed, they move on, while some of the brilliant ones who could not make the subjects for one reason or the other would be made to stay at home.
To the Governor, instead of making the two subjects mandatory, only the subjects relevant to the courses the individual students want to pursue in higher institutions should rather be made mandatory.
He said the school population in the state has continued to move up progressively since 2011 because of the free education programme of his administration from primary to the University, adding too that his administration has continued to pay teachers in the state their salaries as at when due because of the high premium his government places on education.
The governor commended Prof. Abdulrashid Garba for the progress so far recorded by NECO in its operations including the conduct of School Certificate Examinations, urging them to remain patriotic and show the spirit of sacrifice especially now that the country is going through a trying period and President Mohammadu Buhari is working to fix the country again after what happened in the past few years.
Speaking earlier, Professor Garba commended Governor Okorocha for the free education programme of his administration and told the governor that the Council would soon begin to develop the land given to it by the Imo state government, appealing that the government should spare the council’s land when carrying out its threat to revoke lands that had been acquired long before now without those concerned making any effort to develop them.