NUC must probe surge in private varsities first-class graduates – Don

Prof. Abdulrasaq Kilani, the National President of the University of Ilorin Alumni Association, cautioned young people on Sunday against calling education a fraud.

Kilani urged the National Universities Commission to take action for quality control and lamented the high number of first-class graduates being produced by private universities.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, during the Ogun State UNILORIN Alumni Annual General Meeting and Taorid Odedele Memorial Lecture with the theme "Strengthening Alumni Associations for Societal Development and Growth," the professor of Islamic studies made this revelation.

He clarified that those who proceed with the incorrect belief that education is a fraud would ultimately be held accountable by themselves.

"How can anyone claim that education is a scam?" Kilani asked. You can claim that education is a hoax if you wish to keep living in ignorance and poverty.

In actuality, education is liberating. The greatest chance you can ever imagine as an individual is provided by education. Education contributes to societal advancement.

"It is incorrect for anyone to characterise education as a scam; if someone wants to escape poverty, let him receive an education; if he wants to fall into poverty, let him avoid receiving an education or attending school."

According to him, the NUC should also investigate the high number of first-class graduates from these schools in order to maintain quality control and make sure that only deserving graduates were truly awarded.

Kilani agreed that the number of first-class being churned out by the universities has increased much more than it was in the past because students now have increased access to information with the age of the internet.

He said, “In our days in school, maybe we had a book to 200 students in a library and you had to go to the library several times without getting the book, that has changed now.

"You can access a lot of information with just a tap on your iPad or Android phone, which has significantly increased the number of first-class graduates."

Furthermore, I would like to think that pupils now receive a higher quality of elementary and secondary education than we did.

"The majority attended private schools where they were exposed to advanced teaching methods at a young age; this has undoubtedly improved the quality of education these children have received and, of course, has contributed in one way or another to the rise in the number of First Class graduates."

But Kilani also said, "I know that many of these private universities that offer First Class are also businesses." And one of the PR you have to do is to get people to come to your university and that is where we have the pitfalls. If you go to public universities, you don’t see such large numbers of First Class graduates as you see in private universities today.

“That’s an area of quality control and quality assurance that the NUC must look into. I am not saying that the students in private universities are not good or not being taught but something can be done to ensure that those who received the first class merited it.

“A situation whereby you will have 500 First Class calls for concern, at the University of Ilorin, between 1982 to 1986, I don’t think we have up to three First Class graduands. I am saying that yes the students may be good, brilliant but some may not deserve to have First class..the NUC must step in to stem the tide.”

He urged the alumni of various institutions across the globe to find a way of supporting the further growth and development of their Alma mater by tapping on their rich network to give back to their former schools.
The chairman of the association's state chapter, Ayobamigbe Faloye, urged graduates to participate in nation-building.

"We need to get involved in nation-building," Faloye stated. For the benefit of society as a whole, we must look beyond networking for personal interests and goals.

"We must start working because no one else can change the course of our country, our communities, or our society for us."