The House of Representatives, Wednesday, faulted the entry requirement into unity schools in favour of pupils from the north to the detriment of their counterparts from the southern part of Nigeria as announced by the Federal Ministry of Education.
In a motion moved under matters of urgent national importance, the legislators acknowledged that the policy runs contrary to the provisions of Section 42 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, states that no citizen of Nigeria shall be discriminated against on the basis of his community, ethnic group, place of origin, gender, religion or political opinion through any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or administrative action of government.
In the plenary presided by the speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, he declined to approve a request from sponsor of the motion, Mr Afam Victor Ogene calling for the suspension of the recently released discriminatory cut-off mark for unity schools.
Under the controversial policy recently announced by the Education Minister, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufai, an instance of the cut off mark for a male pupil from Abia is put 130, same for a female, as against 35 for a male and 35 for female from Bauchi state.
Both male and female pupils from Kogi States are expected to both score 119 as against 9 and 13 for their counterparts from Sokoto state.
However, the lawmakers mandated the House Committee on Education to parley with officials of both the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Examinations Council, in order to review the policy in such a way that would guarantee fairness and accord the Nigerian educational system more credibility and general acceptance.
Members of the Aminu Sulaiman led-committee were directed to report their findings back to the House by Tuesday, July 2, 2013.
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