20.8 C
Nigeria
Monday, September 25, 2023

Tertiary Institutions Will Open Very Soon –Nwajiuba

Date:

Share post:

- Advertisement -

Minister of State for Education, Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, on Saturday, while speaking on NTA programme ‘Nigeria Policy Brief on Education and COVID-19’ said students in tertiary institutions will resume “very soon”,

Nwajiuba said he would articulate the situation report of tertiary institutions from the National Universities Commission (NUC) and other regulatory bodies of various tertiary institutions and present to the Presidential Task Force, PTF on COVID-19 for evaluation. He however did not give a specific date for the re-opening.

The Minister said he has received calls from private and public universities for reopening of tertiary institutions in the country.

“Tertiary institutions across the country will open very soon. Private universities have written to us, requesting that they are allowed to reopen ahead of public institutions. Vice-Chancellors have also requested that we allow them to reopen for their students in exit classes.

- Advertisement -

The Minister said “we have received a lot of calls from bodies who want us to resolve the industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, before reopening because some public schools which are not ASUU-prone want to take the advantage of the strike to move ahead, but that would destroy our public schools. So, we are working on all these calls.

“NUC would need to do its appraisals and bring it to me. We are waiting for the same from other bodies so I can situate them and present to the PTF on COVID-19. I can’t give the NUC a deadline on this because our job at the ministry is to wait for their inputs. This is not a political decision alone.

“If you open the university system, you have opened the country. ASUU should call-off the strike because the issues they came on board with have been resolved, more or less. The body is making efforts to situate the visitation panel, though, that has to be gazetted and we are on it.”

- Advertisement -

“The other request under the MoU which has not been done is the needs assessment but some of the projects have not been completed because many of the contractors didn’t finish the work they were asked to do. I Know ASUU is not recalcitrant because it is under pressure from the members too,” the Minister added.

- Advertisement -

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Related articles

FG increases salaries of Tertiary Institutions’ staff by 35 percent

The President Bola Tinubu administration has approved the implementation of 35% and 23% of salary increment for Staff...

Embrace collaboration, mentorship to win grants–-Experts urge academics

Some distinguished scholars and consistent research grants winners have assured members of the academia and researchers that grants...

Viewpoint: ASUU- To engage govts in a disguised autocracy is burdensome

By Andrew A. Erakhrumen EVERY society, Nigeria not being an exception, has its “good, bad, and ugly” parts (and...

FG directs NYSC not to post engineering graduates to secondary schools; Sets to Impose Admission Quota

By MyEngineers The Federal Government, through the Council for the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigerian, COREN...