AfriPulse
In a strange deviation from the established norm in Nigeria’s education system where Mathematics and English Language have always remained essential for all learners irrespective of their career choices, the federal government on Tuesday, October 14, 2025 announced that senior secondary school students in the arts and humanities will no longer be required to obtain a credit pass in mathematics in their Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) as a condition for admission into Nigerian universities and polytechnics.
The Federal Ministry of Education in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Folasade Boriowo, said the Revised National Guidelines for Entry Requirements into Nigerian tertiary institutions were developed “to remove unnecessary barriers to admission while upholding academic standards”, adding that a credit pass in mathematics is still mandatory for science, technology, vocational and social science students.
Of course, there were mixed reactions that followed the announcement which probably led Boriowo to issue another statement a few days after.
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The statement said that English Language and Mathematics remain compulsory subjects for all students registering for their O’Level examinations, despite the recent review of admission requirements into tertiary institutions.
It added that the clarification became necessary following misinterpretations of the new O’Level admission framework.
We recall that until now, all applicants in the arts and humanities like their counterparts in the physical, management, and social sciences were required to obtain at least five credit passes in relevant subjects including English Language and Mathematics to qualify for admission into Nigerian universities.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, who described the new reform as a deliberate effort to expand access to tertiary education affirmed that the development is with a view to increasing the average annual intake from about 700,000 to one million students. Government decision to lower the success bar in mathematics for arts and humanities’ students as a means to creating more admission spaces is rather too myopic to come from the country’s highest level of policy makers in the education sector.
Aside from obtaining a credit pass in mathematics, many other factors determine the selection of a candidate from the arts and humanities for admission. Even with a credit pass in mathematics, it could yet be difficult to select a candidate who, based on his Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) score, ranks 420th out of a population of 860 eligible candidates for a course that has an admission quota of 100 spaces. Why then should we begin to lower academic standards just for the sake of candidates whose UTME scores put them at a disadvantage position? Again, a development that seeks to create more admission spaces in tertiary institutions without expanding the existing yet over-stretched infrastructure is simply a mockery of the acclaimed reform agenda.
Furthermore, it’s parochial to assume that this policy is without negative concerns. It seeks to limit the strategic role of mathematics in the overall intellectual development of young minds. The capacity of a student who earned a credit pass in mathematics isn’t the same as the one that scored an ordinary pass in the same subject and exam. Anything worth doing, and in this case worth knowing, is therefore worth knowing well.
Yet, we are not unaware of what obtains in different parts of the world where a credit pass is not required for admission into arts and humanities. This decision is, however, premature given Nigeria’s ruined state of education. Besides, in today’s 21st century world where survival is defined by digital technology just as decision-making processes in life are data-driven, we cannot afford to produce graduates that lack sufficient analytical competence, which finds expression in mathematical reasoning.
As natural with students who always prefer taking escape routes from difficult tasks including perceived challenges in learning mathematics, one adverse effect of this reform is how it would encourage more students to flee from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses to take refuge in arts and humanities; not because of passion but to avoid the mental challenge associated with learning Mathematics. It would equally dissuade students in arts and humanities from appreciating mathematics and working hard to know it well; weakening their capacity for broad-based thinking. This negates the standards that the policy claims to uphold.
To insinuate that students of arts and humanities do not need to know much of mathematics at a credit pass level is a wrong premise for downplaying it in secondary schools because some areas of knowledge in the arts and humanities such as literature are also rooted in critical thinking.
As the foundation of rational reasoning, mathematics equips students with cognitive tools and problem-solving skills. Beyond being a school subject founded on numbers and equations, it also trains the human mind to interpret and solve problems through creative, logical and analytical thinking in almost all areas of knowledge. Through mathematics, students cultivate perseverance and attention to specific details which are some of the soft skills needed in everyday life.
The new policy would be needless if the government stops employing ill-trained teachers who lack cutting-edge teaching methods to impart mathematical knowledge to students. The practice, too, of deploying graduates of agriculture, physics, or economics to teach Mathematics can neither attract students to it nor check the yearly abysmal failure rate in the subject.
Let us not kill mathematics for excuses prompted by institutional failures. We call on the government to abandon its easy path to tackling the superficial fears that inhibit students from doing well in mathematics and address quality assurance issues confronting education. Don’t kill mathematics, sustain it.
Source: DailyTrust | Read the Full Story…
