The Federal Government has lashed out at the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other associations in the university system for not reciprocating its investment in education.
Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu disclosed this Thursday at the 2021 annual ministerial press briefing in Abuja.
He stated that in the last one year, Tertiary Education Trust Fund had committed about N400 billion to the development of Infrastructure in the tertiary institutions across the country.
According to him, the said amount was different from the N1.3 trillion the present administration had spent on capital expenditure in the nation’s tertiary institutions.
He said: “During my briefing in May last year, I told you that the Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has committed a total of N1.3 trillion of capital expenditure in our tertiary institutions.
“In the last one year, TETfund has committed a total of over N395 billion to the development of infrastructure in tertiary institutions.
“This is aside from some budgetary allocations and revitalization funds to universities,” he said.
The minister stated that in the last five years, Buhari’s administration had invested approximately N1.7 trillion in tertiary institutions with the universities taking two third of the total sum.
He lamented that despite the huge commitment by the administration, ASUU had been on strike for almost a year over the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
He was, however, excited that the strike had ended.
On the issue of Out-of-School Children, the minister disclosed that the federal Government had secured a World Bank credit facility of six hundred and eleven million ($611,000,000) dollars to support the Nigerian government in strengthening the Universal Basic Education as well as address the first pillar of Ministerial strategic Plan on Out-of-School children.
He continued: “So far, we have launched the BESDA in ten states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Ebonyi, Kano, Kebbi, Oyo, Yobe, Niger and Zamfara.
“As today, we have recorded impressive school enrolment figures in 17 states of the federation where BESDA is being implemented.
“I can however tell you that through the BESDA initiative, we have reduced the figure of Out-of-School Children from 10.1 million since May last year down to 6,946,328.”
Speaking on the revitalization of the teaching profession policies as approved and its take-off date, the minister said: “Let me say that there will be no uniform take-off date for all the policies. However, without pre-empting the work of the committees, I would like to indicate the take-off for the following policies: Retirement age, January 1, 2022 and 40 years of service, January 1, 2022”
He stated that the effective dates of other policies will be announced subsequently after the submission of the report of the National coordinating Committees. (With NA report)
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