615 prisoners studying free in NOUN – VC

Prof. Abdalla Adamu, the Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University in Nigeria, NOUN, says the institution has admitted a total of 615 prisoners.

Mr Adamu, who made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos, said NOUN was responsible for payment of their fees up to Ph.D. level.

The professor of science education said that it had been his joy to encourage prisoners to acquire education and be useful on re-integration into society.

Mr Adamu added that he was  happy seeing people who were incarcerated and had no hope, with some of them on death row and life sentence, studying.

The vice-chancellor told NAN that the inmates had a preference for studying Peace and Conflict Resolution as their major courses.

Mr Adamu said that NOUN, established in 2002,  also encouraged people living with disabilities to enroll into it.

“We don’t want a situation where people with so-called learning disabilities are separated from the society.

“If anybody with a learning disability wishes to enroll in NOUN, he is welcome.

“We do not have braille books but we have other items of technologies; even phones now have enhancement technologies that they can use but they have not been able to explore them.

“We are living in an inclusive world, we want these people to be part of the society because they live in the society; so, we integrate them as much as we can,’’ he said.

The vice-chancellor noted that the Federal Government had been supporting the institution, but said that NOUN needed more funds to do better. (NAN)