By Kamil Opeyemi
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has condemned the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) of the National Universities Commission (NUC).
ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke, in a statement on Friday, argued that the new curriculum structure posed a threat to quality university education and would erode the powers of the university senate in Nigerian universities.
According to the union, it is inexplicable that the National Universities Commission’s (NUC) pre-packaged 70 percent CCMAS contents were being “imposed” on the Nigerian University System (NUS).
This, it said, leaves university senates, who are statutorily responsible for academic programme development, to work on only 30 percent.
“The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has received several complaints on the threats posed by the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) to quality university education and the erosion of powers of university Senate in Nigerian universities,” the statement reads.
“ASUU cannot turn deaf ears to widespread protests against CCMAS. It is inexplicable that the National Universities Commission’s (NUC) pre-packaged 70% CCMAS contents are being imposed on the Nigerian University System (NUS); leaving university Senates, who are statutorily responsible for academic programme development, to work on only 30%!
“ASUU is not unaware that setting academic standards and assuring quality in the NUS is within the remit of the NUC. Section 10(1) of the Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions) Act, Cap E3, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 enjoins the NUC to lay down the minimum standards for all universities and other degree awarding institutions in the Federation and conduct the accreditation of their degrees and other academic awards.
“However, the process of generating the standard is as important (if not more important) than what is produced as ‘minimum standards’. In this instance, the NUC has recently, through some hazy procedures, churned out CCMAS documents containing 70% curricular contents in seventeen academic fields with little or no inputs from the universities.
“The academic disciplines covered are: (i) Administration and Management, (ii) Agriculture, (iii) Allied Health Sciences, (iv) Architecture, (v) Arts, (vi) Basic Medical Sciences, (vii) Computing, (viii) Communication and Media Studies, (ix) Education, (x) Engineering and Technology, (xi) Environmental Sciences, (xii) Law, (xiii) Medicine and Dentistry, (xiv) Pharmaceutical Science, (xv) Sciences, (xvi) Social Sciences, and (xvii) Veterinary Medicine.
“ASUU posits that CCMAS portends serious dangers for quality university education in Nigeria. It is an erosion of University Autonomy and Academic Freedom which the Union has advocated and struggled to defend over time,” Osodeke said.
“CCMAS is an emasculation of the university Senate which, by law and practice, should superintend curriculum review, examinations and award of degrees and certificates in each university.
“ASUU suspects the imposition of CCMAS as part of the strategy for implementing the Nigerian University System Innovation Programme (NUSIP) of the World Bank. The Union rejected NUSIP in the 1990s. We also reject the imposition of CCMAS on Nigerian universities now!”
The ASUU president described the CCMAS as a nightmarish model of curriculum reengineering and an aberration to the Nigerian University System.
He added that the CCMAS documents were flawed both in process and in content, saying there was no basis for the 70 percent “untouchable CCMAS” which in his view cannot stand the test of critical scrutiny of university Senates.
“NUC should encourage universities, as currently being done by the University of Ibadan, to propose innovations for the review of their programmes. Proposals from across universities should then be sieved and synthesised by more competent expert teams to review the existing BMAS documents and/or create new ones as appropriate.
“The difference here is the bottom-up approach unlike the top-bottom or take-it-or-leave-it model of the CCMAS.”
Reacting, the National Universities Commission (NUC) in a statement by Noel Biodum Saliu, its deputy executive secretary (academics), described ASUU’s narrative as misleading.
The NUC said universities were carried along while developing the CCMAS, adding that the 70 to 30 per cent arrangement was a unanimous agreement with vice-chancellors across the country.
“That assertion that there was no official communication from NUC to the Universities on the review of the BMAS is not correct. Vice-Chancellors can attest to the fact that the Commission has been communicating with them on the issue over the last five years,” NUC said
“In addition, several virtual and on-site meetings were held to intimate them of the curriculum review, and provide them with updates from time to time (Recordings of these meetings are available).
“The claim that there is no evidence to show that the Universities were involved in the true sense of revision of the BMAS development and the subsequent implementation of the CCMAS in the NUS is also far from the truth.
“The curriculum review process started in 2018 with the subject area experts in Nigerian Universities producing draft documents, which were forwarded to experts in other Nigerian Universities for their comments.
“Comments received from Universities that responded formed part of the working documents forwarded to the various curriculum review panels. It is important to note that when the initial drafts of the CCMAS were ready, they were also circulated amongst Nigerian academics.
“A huge number of comments were received, which were synthesised and incorporated into the respective programmes. How else would one get the universities involved in an exercise of this nature? Needless to say that the practice of getting and incorporating inputs from Nigerian Universities has been the tradition of NUC, from 1989 to date.
“On the components of programmes purported to have been left out, the NUC wishes to state categorically that it informed Nigerian Universities from the beginning of the review exercise that the Commission would provide for 70% of the minimum course requirements for graduation in Nigerian universities, while the Universities would make up the remaining 30%.
“The National Universities Commission wishes to conclude that there is no basis for the attack on the Commission’s process of coordinating the review of the Curriculum of Nigerian Universities.
“This has been done strictly in compliance with the mandate conferred on it by the Education (National Minimum Standard and Establishment of Institutions) Act No. E3 L.F.N. 2004.
“Furthermore, the efforts of the Commission in the development of the CCMAS have been acclaimed by Nigerian Universities, the private sector and, indeed, all stakeholders of university education as well as the international community.
“We believe that hundreds of professors and other credible academics who have been participating in the ongoing curriculum re-engineering exercise are members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)!”.
The commission also dismissed claim that it engaged external consultants to review the curriculum.