NOUN Graduates to Be Included in NYSC Scheme, Law School, Henceforth

In a significant pronouncement that is likely to have a positive impact on the educational landscape in Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu has directed the inclusion of graduates from the National Open University (NOUN) in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. This move acknowledges the importance of ensuring equal opportunities for all graduates, regardless of their educational background.

Additionally, Tinubu’s bold step resolving the policy misunderstanding regarding NOUN Law graduates’ admission to the Law School is a positive step towards promoting inclusivity and recognizing the qualifications of these graduates. This decision is likely to have a positive impact on the educational landscape in Nigeria.

President ordered the Federal Ministry of Education to create and deploy the relevant processes to ensure the compliance to the directive, to enable NOUN graduates participate in the National Youth Service Corps scheme, which is mandatory national service for graduates of Nigerian origin below the age of 30.

Tinubu also, resolve the policy misunderstanding about admittance of NOUN Law graduates to participate in Law School and directed they be admitted henceforth, to participate in the programme.

President Tinubu gave the policy directives through the Deputy Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Biodun Saliu, who represented him, at the 13th convocation ceremony of NOUN on Saturday, at the university’s Convocation Arena, Jabi, Abuja.

Before now, NOUN graduates in 2017 were assured by the former vice chancellor of the institution, Abdallah Adamu, that they would soon be able to participate in the National Youth Service Corps and the Nigerian Law School.

Adamu, in an interview, said, “The fact is that the National University Commission law doesn’t allow those who do part-time studies to do NYSC, and the original Act that established NOUN says we offer courses by correspondence, and that is the expression NYSC is using to say ‘if it’s a correspondence course, then it is part-time, if it’s part-time, then the students are not eligible for NYSC.’

A few years later, a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt squashed a suit by Law graduates of NOUN seeking admission into the Nigerian Law School.

Some graduates of the NOUN Law Department instituted a legal action on May 12, 2015, against the Council of Legal Education, the National University Commission, the Attorney General of the Federation and NOUN over their refusal to admit them into the Law School.