Skip to main content

IELTS: Nigerians’ Call To Skip English Proficiency Test-UK Home Office Reacts

IELTS: UK Home Office reacts to Nigerians’ call to skip English proficiency test.



WITH over 60,000 signatures on a petition on change.org to stop foreign universities from requesting English proficiency tests from Nigerians, the UK Home Office says changes will not be implemented soon.

THE UK Home Office responded to a request by Ebenezar Wikina, founder of Policy Shapers, an open-source policy platform, which asked the Home Office to provide its criteria for exempting countries from taking the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

Foreign universities demand the IELTS as a requirement for admitting international students.

While the IELTS tests are expensive, and fees more than double the minimum wage in Nigeria, the test results are valid only for two years.

“To be included on the Majority English Speaking Country (MESC) list, we must have evidence that most people in the country (more than half) speak English as a first language,” the UK Home Office said.

The UK Home Office does not officially recognise 27 Anglophone countries in Africa as English speaking countries.

However, the UK Home Office exempts citizens of Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, and 10 other countries from taking the test.

"We rely on publicly available evidence such as official censuses to make this determination along with other academic sources. We may also consult the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office where additional evidence is required.

“Currently, on the information available to us, Nigeria does not meet the requirement. This list is periodically reviewed and updated, and new countries are added if they are found to meet the requirements,” the letter read."

Speaking with The ICIR, Wikina said that the campaign would continue but stakeholders would meet to decide the next course of action to the UK Home Office response.


"Policy Shapers will be hosting a stakeholders strategy session next week to plan for next steps with the campaign and bringing together all parties concerned,” he said.

The #ReformIELTSPolicy campaign on Twitter, also initiated by Policy Shapers, received the endorsement of the Vice President of Nigeria Yem Osinbajo,
 who believes Nigerians deserve an exemption from the test as former British colonies.

Source:ICIR

Comments

Post a Comment

Type your comments here

Popular posts from this blog

AYU-You Were Brought From The Gutter, From Nothing-Governor Nyesom Wike To Senator Iyorchia Ayu (The PDP Chairman)

On Thursday, the Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike replied the chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Iyorchia Ayu by blasting him for referring to some members of the party as children. While speaking in an interview with BBC Hausa on Wednesday, Ayu said those demanding his resignation are children.  “When we started the PDP journey, we did not see these children. They are children who do not know why we established this party,” he had said.  We will not allow one person to come and destroy our party." Speaking on Thursday at the inauguration of roads in Ikwerre LGA of the state, Wike said those who Ayu described as children brought him from nothing to be chairman of the party.  He said if Ayu remains arrogant and refuses to resign, it may cost the PDP the 2023 presidential election.  “You can imagine what power can do. You can imagine how ingratitude — how people can be ingrates in their lives,” Wike said.  “I thought as a chairman of a party who want...
5 comments
Read more

Dowen College-Slylvester Oromoni

Sylvester Oromoni: Autopsy report out, exonerates house master, others from murder Suspects released on bail. We await Toxicology report to determine cause of death- Police. The autopsy report conducted on the corpse of late Sylvester Oromoni,  alleged victim of bullying, at the Dowen College, Lagos, is out. The report however, exonerated the school’s House Master and other students  arrested in connection with the alleged murder. Consequently, the suspects who have been in Police custody at the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence  Department, Yaba, for over three weeks, were released last week Thursday, on bail. It would be recalled that the deceased, who was a Junior Secondary School 2 student of the school and a boarder, was rushed to his parents home in Warri, Delta State two months ago, owing to some injuries he sustained while playing football, according to the school. But his parents  faulted the school’s claim, disclosing  rather, that their so...
3 comments
Read more

Scotland Moves to Pardon Thousands Executed as Witches—400 Years

Scotland Moves to Pardon Thousands Executed as Witches—400 Years LaterDecades after women tried in Salem, Mass. were exonerated, campaigners in Scotland are calling for a reckoning with their country’s violent past.      MAGGIE WALL'S MEMORIAL NORTH BERWICK, SCOTLAND—THE WIND BLEW HARD ONE FALL NIGHT HERE IN 1589. SO MUCH SO THAT KING JAMES VI CONCLUDED THAT WITCHES MUST HAVE GATHERED IN THIS FISHING TOWN TO CONJURE UP THE STORM THAT DELAYED THE ARRIVAL OF HIS NEW BRIDE, THE SISTER OF THE DANISH KING. Much of Europe had succumbed to a mania about witchcraft, just over a hundred years before a similar frenzy swept over the town of Salem, Mass. This move will see, Scotland giving pardon to thousands of women executed for witchcraft centuries ago. The Scottish Parliament could soon consider pardons for thousands of people - mostly women - who were put on trial and executed centuries ago for witchcraft. Scottish parliament member Natalie Don wrote on social media that she wou...
4 comments
Read more