₦airaland Forum

The management of Dowen College, Lagos, has announced the commencement of online academic session despite Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s order to shut down all activities in the school.

Mr Sanwo-Olu’s administration had ordered the indefinite closure of the school on Friday, following the controversies surrounding the death of a 12-year-old student, Sylvester Oromoni Junior. This was to enable proper investigations are carried out.

But the school management, in a mail sent to parents shortly after the shutdown, announced that all academic activities will be held online until further notice.

“We wish to inform you that further to our meeting at the Ministry of Education the school will be shutting down all physical activities till further notice. All learning will move online in the interest of safety and transparency,” the management said in the mail, a screenshot of which was seen on Twitter.

It further commiserated with the family of the Oromoni Junior who died after sustaining injuries over his alleged refusal to join a cult group in the school.

Since the incident, there has been outrage as many called for a complete shutdown of the school and demanded justice for the 12-year-old with #Justiceforsylvester trending on Twitter.

This followed the management’s claim that the deceased only suffered football injuries despite evidence of his last moments that indicated that the 12-year-old was beaten, as his lips were swollen and blood was spotted on his teeth, an indication that he also had injuries in the mouth.

Sylvester Oromoni, the father of the late student had alleged that parents of students responsible for torturing his son were on the move to fly them out of the country.

“The parents of the boys are wealthy. They withdrew them. The school called the parents to pick their wards; interviewed them. Some of the parents are planning to fly the children out of the country,” Mr Oromoni alleged while disclosing that Oromoni Junior was also given a chemical substance.

For days, The Gazette’s efforts to reach the school for comments have been futile.

The Lagos State Government on Friday ordered the indefinite closure of Dowen College, Lekki, following the investigation into the death of Sylvester Oromoni, a student of the school.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Assistant Director, Public Affairs, of the Lagos State Ministry of Education, Ganiu Lawal.

The statement read, “The Lagos State Government has ordered the indefinite closure of Dowen College, Lekki, pending the outcome of an investigation into the death of Sylvester Oromoni Jnr, a student of the school.

Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo, announced the closure after a meeting with the School Management and Staff.

“The Commissioner called for calm, saying no effort will be spared in getting to the root of the incident.”

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Tuesday, cancelled general cut-off marks for admission into tertiary institutions and allowed the institutions freedom to set their individual minimum benchmark for admission.

The Board took the decision at the 2021 policy meeting which was held virtually and chaired by the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu.

Speaking during the meeting, the Registrar of JAMB Prof. Is-haq Oloyede said some universities such as the University of Maiduguri proposed 150, Usman Dan Fodio University Sokoto proposed 140, Pan Atlantic University proposed 210, University of Lagos 200, Lagos State University190, Covenant University190, Bayero University Kano, 180.

The stakeholders also approved October 29, 2021, as the deadline for the closure of amendments for 2021 admissions.

On the deadline for the closure of admissions, the stakeholders resolved to allow the ministry to decide as they could not agree on the December 31, 2021, deadline for all public institutions and January 31st 2022 for all public institutions.

Stakeholders also adopted the 2021 admission guidelines, which provide that all applications for part-time or full-time programmes for degrees, NCE, OND, and others must be posted only through JAMB.

The meeting approved that for Direct Entry, DE, the maximum score a candidate can present is 6 and the minimum is 2 or E, as required by law.

Speaking on other admission criteria, he said the candidate’s credentials must be uploaded on CAPS and recommended by the institution, JAMB approves and the candidate accepts the offer of admission.

He said if candidates have not accepted an offer, the institution can change the candidate after informing JAMB.

Also approved at the policy were the guidelines that every institution is at liberty to admit candidates based on its own minimum score approved by the institution and the policy meeting.

The meeting also resolved that every institution should maintain its own minimum score as approved by the policy meeting.

According to the stakeholders, the 2021 admissions will be conducted only through CAPS, no institution is allowed to admit candidates without uploading their details on CAPS.

Oloyede further disclosed that for the 2021/2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, the board is introducing two new subjects: computer studies and physical and health education, bringing to a total of 25 subjects.

The stakeholders also exempted prison inmates, visually impaired and foreign candidates from sitting for post UTME exercise.

Speaking on the 2020 admissions, Oloyede said out of the 956,809 admission spaces in the 962 higher education institutions in the country about 600,000 have so far been admitted.

While saying there are many admission spaces that have not been filled up in several courses due to lack of qualified candidates, Oloyede said private universities in the country were only able to admit 36,381 candidates out of the 120,938 spaces available to them.

Declaring the policy meeting open, Minister of Education, Adamu, commended JAMB for introducing use of the National Identification Number, NIN, in the registration process for UTME.

Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, the minister said the use of NIN drastically reduced examination malpractice in the 2021 exam, adding that the West African Examination Council, WAEC, will also follow a similar path by adopting mandatory use of NIN.

“I am enthused that the last examination recorded the lowest cases of examination irregularities in the history of the Board because those who will normally have exploited the weak links through biometrics infractions had been effectively check-mated with the introduction of NIN by JAMB.

“It is gratifying that the WAEC has decided to follow the path of using NIN to curb examination malpractices. The Ministry is presently considering other ways of using the NIN to uncover some other admissions irregularities and all perpetrators including their collaborators in the institutions would be made to face the consequences. ”

On illegal admissions being conducted by some tertiary institutions, the minister expressed concerns that the government’s directive that all admissions should be done through JAMB’s Central Admissions Processing System, CAPS, is being violated.

He directed JAMB to furnish the government with the list of affected institutions for necessary punishments.

His words: “It is saddening that despite the clear directives at previous policy meetings some institutions still illegally admitted candidates outside CAPS. I consider such act as a direct affront on the system and appropriate sanctions shall be applied on those found to have been in such a disruptive act.

“Similarly, any institution that issued admission letters to candidates outside CAPS will be punished for such gross indiscipline and fraud.

” The consequence of admissions conducted outside of CAPS is grievous. It subjects the candidates to gloom future as a nemesis of illegal admission awaits them at the completion of study when it will be impossible to take full advantage of the acquired candidates.

“As a demonstration of our resolve, I have directed JAMB to bring forward for appropriate sanctions, the list of all institutions involved in the violation of the directive of government which was was personally conveyed by me at the 2018 policy meeting in Gbongan, Osun State.”