The 2022/2023 admissions into federal-owned unity schools have begun, and the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, appealed for parity and fairness on Monday. The National Examination Council confirmed the availability of the 2022 National Common Entrance Examinations in June. There were a total of fifteen pupils who received a score of zero on the nationwide exam. Adamu urged the heads of the country’s unity schools to uphold the values of equity and fairness even if he did not formally reveal the cut-off mark for each state.
As Principals of the Nation’s 110 Unity Colleges congregate in Benin city, the capital of Edo State to launch this year’s admission, Education Minister, Adamu Adamu has directed that they must be guided by the principles of fairness, equity, and good conscience in the conduct of the admission. In a message to the group of principals in charge of the exercise, the Minister emphasized the need to give every region of the nation a sense of belonging in the admissions process, and he added that the process needed to reflect the ideals of the founding fathers of the unity colleges as centers of academic excellence, models for states and private schools, as well as tools for National integration and unity.
The Director of Senior Secondary Education, Hajia Binta Abdulkadir, spoke at the inauguration ceremony on behalf of the Minister and stated that adhering to the rules would allow for the proper selection of competent applicants, which would serve as the cornerstone for future academic excellence. The Minister emphasized to the principals the need of adhering to carrying capacity and the National Policy of one teacher to every forty students following UNESCO guidelines. Adamu Adamu emphasized the need to give precedence to applicants who have applied to Unity schools from outside of their hometowns. The Minister also instructed the Principles to rigorously abide by the selection standards, which are 60% national merit, 30% state equality, and 10% exigency.
The Chairperson of Principals of Federal Unity Colleges, Dr. T. F. O Yakubu-Oyinloye, who is also the Principal of Queens College Lagos, said earlier in her welcome address that the government’s guidelines on merit and equality of states will be strictly followed to get the best candidates for the Nation’s Unity Colleges. A guided tour of the host college, Federal Government Girls College Benin, which has a brand-new appearance and seems more like a university campus than a secondary school, was one of the opening ceremony’s highlights. The college’s principal, Mrs. Aghedo Osamediame, who accompanied her colleagues on the guided tour said the brand-new look of the institution has been made possible courtesy of the intervention of the Ministry.
