In a sweeping policy reform, the Federal Ministry of Education has announced that school-leavers seeking admission into arts and humanities programmes in Nigerian universities and polytechnics will no longer be required to pass mathematics in their West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
The ministry explained that the change aims to boost enrolment and reduce barriers to tertiary education, particularly for students who struggle with mathematics. However, the subject will remain compulsory for candidates pursuing science and technology-related courses.
Minister of Education, Maruf Tunji Alausa, said the reform could open opportunities for an additional 250,000 to 300,000 students each year, addressing Nigeria’s long-standing admission gap. In 2024, out of nearly 1.9 million Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidates, only 856,873 gained admission. The move, he argued, would expand access and ease academic bottlenecks.
While the announcement has been welcomed by some education stakeholders, it has also drawn strong criticism from experts and educators who fear it could lower academic standards.
Professor Ishaq Oloyede, registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), applauded the move, describing it as a realistic adjustment. “How will you say somebody who wants to study Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa or Arabic should not have university admission because of not having mathematics, when such a person could go to a London-based university to study Yoruba without mathematics?” he asked. Oloyede added that the reform would help reduce certificate forgery and align national policies with global practices.
However, education researcher Moses Udoisoh disagreed, calling the decision “a step in the wrong direction”. Udoisoh argued that in a world increasingly driven by data and technology, mathematical literacy is vital even in the arts. “The world of arts and humanities is now interwoven with technology and scientific inquiry – linguistics has evolved into natural language processing, law now involves AI and cyber tech, music explores its therapeutic effects, and religious and cultural studies rely on data science and machine learning. How will the child you advise to shun mathematics today manoeuvre this new world order?” he said.
Parents and teachers have also voiced concern. Adeolu Ogunbanjo, chair of the National Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria, warned that scrapping mathematics could backfire. “Every profession needs a bit of mathematics. From budgeting to business planning, you cannot do without it. A total cancellation of mathematics for art students is wrong and should be discouraged,” he said, suggesting instead that a pass in mathematics, rather than a credit, should suffice for admission.
Similarly, Alexander Obadimu, president of the Association of Retired Secondary School Principals in Ogun State, described the policy as “a gateway to academic decline”. He cautioned that the decision could encourage students to avoid mathematics entirely, leading to long-term educational setbacks.
Abiodun Raufu, an associate professor of criminal justice at Southern University and A&M College in the United States, echoed these fears, calling the move “intellectually reckless and strategically dangerous”. He argued that mathematics underpins logical and critical reasoning, which are essential in every discipline. “Removing it from any field threatens Nigeria’s digital growth and professional standards,” he said.
Despite the controversy, the policy takes immediate effect across all Nigerian higher institutions, allowing students in the arts and humanities to gain admission with five credits in relevant subjects, including English, obtained in not more than two sittings. For polytechnics, four credit passes will now be sufficient for non-science courses.
As the new rule reshapes Nigeria’s educational landscape, opinions remain sharply divided between those celebrating expanded access and those warning of its potential cost to academic excellence.