CLAIM
On Wednesday, April 9, a claim that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has extended the mandated one year service by three more months.
The claim was contained in a graphics circulating online and it reads
“OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
All prospective corp members of Batch A, stream 1 scheduled to commence orientation course on April 23rd, 2025, are hereby informed that the service year has been extended by three (3) months due to recent policy reviews.
Updated call-up numbers/ letters and new orientation dates will be communicated shortly”. It concluded.
The factcheck 247 decided to verify the information, giving its significance on the general public and prospective corp members.
VERIFICATION
The Factcheck247 ran a check across the social media pages of the NYSC and discovered nothing like extension of the service years by three months.
Also, there was no official statement on the website of the NYSC as regards the extension of the years.
Meanwhile, the NYSC on its official X handle also posted a disclaimer, noting that it’s a ‘fake news’.
https://x.com/officialnyscng/status/1909989996624216090?t=zi1sxliFdHpM-JMd8q–Ww&s=19
Additionally, an official of the Ministry of youths, which is the parent Ministry of the NYSC refuted the claim,saying “Nothing like that, the information is not true. They didn’t add three months to the NYSC year”.
VERDICT
There’s no evidence to support the claim that the NYSC has extended the service year by three months as being circulated.
ADDENDUM
The mandated one year NYSC scheme has become a subject of controversy lately in Nigeria.
The Federal government earlier during the week debunked rumours regarding a proposed extension of the NYSC scheme to two years.
Minister of Education Tunji Alausa addressed the issue during a convocation lecture at Lagos State University (LASU) on Tuesday, clarifying that he had been misquoted.
He said, “There was never a time that I said youth service should be extended to two years. I never said that.”
Alausa explained that his proposal was focused on establishing a special teacher corps for graduates of National Colleges of Education, aimed at alleviating the pressing shortage of teachers in rural areas, adding that this voluntary corps could deploy educators to underserved regions for two years, rather than extending the NYSC service itself.
He noted “We are training many graduates from National Colleges of Education, but there aren’t enough jobs for them. This imbalance between supply and demand leads to challenges, especially in rural areas, where there is a lack of teachers in critical subjects like mathematics, science, and English.”