The Senate on Thursday approved the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme and Law School for graduates of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).
The approval followed the passage of the National Open University of Nigeria Bill sponsored by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TetFund, Jibrin Barau (APC-Kano North), during plenary.
Before the passage of the bill, graduates of NOUN regardless of their ages hawere denied participation in the mandatory NYSC scheme enjoyed by their counterparts from regular universities.
Also, just as those who read law from the University have not been allowed to attend the Nigeria Law School upon which they can be called to bar like their counterparts.
The anomalies were occasioned by the defect inherent in its establishment Act of 1983.
But the Senate in its adoption of the report on Amendment Bill to the Act submitted to it by its Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TetFund cleared the hurdle for graduates of the open institution to enjoy similar privileges like their counterparts from regular universities.
The committee in the adopted report read by its Chairman, Barau explained that amendments made in the Act were geared towards changing the negative perception of the public about the University in respect of the word correspondence, which gives the impression that the university is not a full-time one and as such seen as a part-time institution.
“These two concepts, correspondence and part time, significantly affect the way the public views the academic programme cum courses run by the university which has been the reason why law graduates of the school are not allowed into the Nigerian Law School as well as the reason for the non-inclusion of graduates of the school into the NYSC scheme on yearly basis”, he said.
He explained further that the inclusion of ICT as another means of tuition in the operations of the school was another amendment made to the subsisting Act as a way of upgrading the current teaching model which depends critically on virtual learning and students’ individual research.
The committee reasoned that this will further deal with the challenge of limited access in the tertiary education sector and by extension bring the National Open University of Nigeria Act in line with the requirements of the Universities Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Act 2012.
It added that the amendment is apt, timely and in tune with global best practices by repositioning NOUN for better service delivery and help in producing quality graduates for the Nigerian society.
