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The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has kicked against the proposed Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) prepared by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
The union described as nightmarish the CCMAS model, adding that its adoption isn't only a threat to quality education but also an erosion of the powers currently wielded by Senates of Nigerian universities.
ASUU expressed its displeasure in a statement signed by its National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, on Friday, June 30, 2023.
It said it's unexplainable that NUC was trying to impose on the Nigerian University System its pre-packaged 70 per cent CCMAS contents, lamenting that university Senates, who are statutorily responsible for academic programme development, were left to work on only 30 per cent.
The union also noted that there have been growing concerns about the numerous shortcomings and gross inadequacies of the CCMAS documents.
“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 17 academic fields with little or no input 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,” the statement partly read.
The academic body added that even though many university administrators are dissatisfied with the CCMAS, they have held back from going public with their discontent.
However, some university Senates did not hide their displeasure with the ongoing efforts to impose CCMAS on Nigerian universities by the NUC, the statement revealed.
It read, “The CCMAS is a nightmarish model of curriculum reengineering. It is an aberration to the Nigerian University System. The CCMAS documents are flawed both in process and in content. There is no basis for the 70% “untouchable CCMAS,” which cannot stand the test of critical scrutiny of university Senates.”
It suggested that “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.”