Federal Govt Accuses ASUU Of Not Reciprocating N1.7trn Spent On Tertiary Education

The Nigerian government has accused Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of not reciprocating N1.7 trillion spent on tertiary education.

Federal Govt Accuses ASUU Of Not Reciprocating N1.7trn Spent On Tertiary Education
Mallam Adamu Adamu

The Federal Government has accused Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other unions within the university system of not reciprocating her investment in education.

Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, who made the accusation yesterday at the 2021 press briefing in Abuja, stated that in the last one year, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) has committed about N400 billion to the development of infrastructure in the tertiary institutions across the country.

According to him, the amount is different from the N1.3 trillion the present administration has spent on capital expenditure in the institutions.

“During my briefing in May last year, I told you that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had 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 N395billion to the development of infrastructure. This is aside from some budgetary allocations and revitalisation funds to universities,” he said.

Adamu also stated that in the last five years, Buhari’s administration has invested approximately N1.7 trillion in tertiary institutions, with the universities taking two third of the total sum.

The minister, who lamented that despite the huge commitment by the administration, ASUU was on strike for almost a year over the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), however, said he was excited that the strike has ended.

On the issue of out-of-school children, Adamu revealed that the Federal Government has secured a World Bank credit facility of $611,000,000 to support strengthening of Universal Basic Education (UBE) as well as address the first pillar of the Ministerial Strategic Plan on out-of-school children.

“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 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 million,” the minister said.

On revitalisation of the teaching profession policies as approved and its take-off date, Adamu 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; 40 years of service, January 1, 2022.”

According to him, the effective dates for other policies will be announced after submission of the report of the national coordinating committees.

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