Open University!! NOUN Approves Scholarships For Nigerian Prisoners
education for Nigerian prisoners to help them to acquire formal
education and improve their quality of life.
Dr Jonathan Aliede, the Director, Abakaliki Study Centre of NOUN, made
this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abakaliki on Monday.
He explained that the measure was part of the university's efforts to
ensure that education was accessible to every Nigerian.
"The university is providing scholarship opportunity to all prisoners
in Nigeria which means any person in prison does not need to border
about paying for school fees in the NOUN.
If supported by the Federal Government through adequate funding, this
policy would make the university a very strong instrument of
actualizing the educational programmes of this country", he said.
Aliede said the policy was to ensure that education was available to
every Nigerian irrespective of religion, s*x, social and economic
background and /or where one is residing.
He described the NOUN as an answer to the educational problem of the
country in view of the number of students who take the JAMB every year
and could not be admitted as a result of non-availability of spaces.
"The National Open University of Nigeria is an answer to the
educational problem of this country. This is in view of the number of
students who take the JAMB every year and can not be admitted as a
result of non-availability of spaces.
Secondly, with the high cost of education these days, even the mission
schools that are supposed to be cheaper are so costly that so many
people can not afford it.
Even the state universities are also not affordable because of the high costs.
This gap is what NOUN is here to bridge because it is very cheap as a
federal university and the flexibility it offers also makes it
possible for people to combine whatever they are doing.
It could be business or civil service they can conveniently combine
them and still avail themselves the opportunity of acquiring skills
and education through the NOUN", he said.
He said the university had introduced conference marking of exam
papers to checkmate the issues associated with missing scripts.
"The system helps to detect students who did not write the examination
unlike what obtained in the past where scripts are marked in Lagos
making it difficult for students in far away centres not being able to
tackle any perceived problems", he added.
According to him, the students now graduate as and when due.
He, however, advised the students to be assiduous, take their studies
very seriously and remember that they are going into an already
saturated labour market.
They should prepare to face the challenges of the 21st century.
Source-Noun
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