The Federal Ministry of Education
on Wednesday debunked the news trending on social media that the Federal
Government had approved the hike in tuition fees of Nigerian universities to
N350,000.
Mr Sonny Echono, the Permanent
Secretary in the ministry made the clarification at a symposium in Abuja.
Echono, who said the Federal
Government was not planning to increase the tuition fees, urged Nigerians to
remain calm on the issue.
The symposium has its theme: “The
Right to Education means the Right to a Qualified Teacher’’.
“The Federal Government did not
and has no intention of introducing new tuition fees in our public universities
not to mention the figure to N350, 000.
“What is true is that the present
administration is committed to guarantee quality of education.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has
directed the ministry of education along with the ministry of finance to
jointly organise a workshop that will inform on a very sustainable and workable
recommendation of funding education in Nigeria.
“And to this end, we have been
engaging various stakeholders including ASUU who can come up with a very useful
contribution that will bring all these recommendations achievable.
Echono added that the ministry
was working toward re-establishing the education bank to address the role of
education funding as the government cannot do it alone.
He said the role of the education
bank would be to give loan at a low interest rate, saying this would not be
limited to students alone but also parents.
On the right to education, Echono
said every child has the fundamental right to quality education, adding that
the ministry had developed strategies to ensure pupils and students with
special needs were carried along.
Echono said that the National
Teachers Institute (NTI) had also concluded plans to train and develop the
capacity of primary and secondary school teachers in the 36 states and FCT.
He said that the right to
education was sine qua non to national development, saying the Ministerial
Strategic Plan (2016 to 2019) had been designed to guarantee expanded access to
all levels of education.
Echono said that the plan was
geared toward providing adequately the necessary infrastructure and facilities
to ensure that the right to the basic level and standards were maintained.
He, therefore, called on teachers
to upgrade themselves as effective from January 2020, any teacher who did not
present the prerequisite qualifications would be pushed out of the system.
Echono urged the teachers to take
advantage of the professional examinations made available in 35 states and
online resource materials to guide them as a teacher.
He, however, called on states
governments owing teachers’ salaries to take a step in ensuring that teachers
were paid as when due and as well motivate teachers adequately for optimal
performance.
Earlier, Mrs Justina Ibe, the
Director, Education Support Service of the ministry, said the Federal
Government had not relented in its efforts to ensure that the teaching
profession was provided with qualified personnel.
Ibe said that this informed the
Ministerial Strategic Plan which were now being implemented gradually with
positive results.
The symposium was part of
activities to commemorate the World Teachers Day to hold on Oct. 5, to
celebrate the contributions of teachers to nation building.
Illiterate Professors, what is "tuition fees"? What is the difference between the two words? Nonsense in people who do not merit their positions!
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