Open University!! NOUN Approves Scholarships For Nigerian Prisoners

The National Open University of
Nigeria (NOUN), has announced free
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.