Executive Secretary of the Na­tional Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abubakar Rash­eed, has disclosed plans by the commission to cede at least 70 percent of its regulatory powers to determine curriculum con­tents of universities in Nigeria.

According to Rasheed, with the re-engineering of university education in Nigeria, each uni­versity management will be free to establish their course content or curriculum exclusively, while NUC might just contribute 30 percent from the centre.

The NUC boss said the deci­sion became necessary in order to devolve powers among the universities, noting that it’s not mandatory that a curriculum for education in Kano must be the same for Calabar, when indi­vidual universities might have their own peculiarities.

He gave this indications, on Tuesday, while welcoming the Kano State governor, Abdulla­hi Ganduje, who was at NUC to seek provisional licence for the establishment of Sa’adatu Rimi University of Education, Kano.

Rasheed also hinted that the need to create graduates suited to contemporary jobs necessi­tated the idea of allowing Sen­ate of universities have some leverages in setting their own course content.

He said a directive has gone to all universities to constitute committees towards actualising this objective.

He criticised those condemn­ing the creation of more univer­sities in Nigeria, saying the goal of government was to expand access, insisting that there can never be enough universities for a country like Nigeria with awareness of the inherent ben­efits of tertiary education.

“We have started a gradual devolution of powers regard­ing who determines what get taught in the universities. We have found out that because of the emerging circumstanc­es, we should not be the one determining everything about universities curriculum.

“We have directed all univer­sities to constitute committees towards this, we have directed that each department heads be in tune with the essence of this policy, because for us the curric­ulum for teaching education in a university in Maiduguri, doesn’t have to be the same with teaching education in Calabar, so we are looking at devolving about 70 percent of our powers to the universities while the cen­tre may just contribute about 30 percent.

“So that Senate of each uni­versity would be the deciding officers on course curriculum.

“Another strategic goal of the commission is to expand access. We need to expand the system by encouraging the public arm to establish more universities and encourage the private arms also to establish more universities. Today in Kano alone we have over six private universities.

“I take time to say this be­cause some people, out of igno­rance think we have too many universities, when they are not even enough. We are trying to encourage mono courses in universities, what I would call specialised universities. Nigeria and Kano have the room to ac­commodate more universities,” the NUC Executive Secretary noted.

Commenting on the un-em­ployability of Nigerian grad­uates as against the rate they were being churned out from the tertiary system, Rasheed said a time will come when graduates will come together, engage themselves in discus­sions and employ themselves.

“It’s part of why we are un­dertaking a comprehensive curriculum review so that the universities can solve their own problems themselves and by extension the state or national issues.”

Meanwhile, the Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje while commending the NUC for granting their request to es­tablish the Sa’adatu Rimi Uni­versity of Education, said the state would remain indebted to the commission for facilitating educational growth policies.

He, however, seized a brief opportunity to comment on the Almajiri system of educa­tion in the north, saying there was nothing wrong with Alma­jiri concept of education rather what was required was a review of the teaching mode.

“When people say do away with Almajiri system of educa­tion I keep saying it is an issue of misconception, because from experience those beneficiaries way back who were later ex­posed to formal or Western form of education did better because they were already in turn with words or spellings in Arabic.

“But in order to improve the Almajiri education sys­tem we need to thinker with the curriculum to see areas of improvement,” Ganduje noted shortly after NUC approved the establishment of the university in Kano.