FG won’t hike varsities tuition fees- Ministry

The Federal Government has denied claims that it had approved the hike in tuition fees of Nigerian universities to N350,000.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Mr. Sonny Echono, made the clarification during a symposium in Abuja.

Echono was reacting to a report the Federal Government had concluded plans to increase universities tuition fees to N350, 000, which went viral on social media.

He said the Federal Government was not planning to increase the tuition fees and urged Nigerians to remain calm on the issue.

[penci_blockquote style=”style-2″ align=”none” author=””]Echono said: “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.[/penci_blockquote][penci_related_posts taxonomies=”undefined” title=”Online The symposium’s theme was: “The Right to Education means the Right to a Qualified Teacher”.

Echono said: “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.

The permanent secretary disclosed that the ministry was working toward re-establishing the education bank to address the role of education funding, stressing that the government cannot do it alone.

According to him, 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, saying that the ministry had developed strategies to ensure pupils and students with special needs were carried along.

Echono disclosed 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, stressing that the Ministerial Strategic Plan (2016 to 2019) had been designed to guarantee expanded access to all levels of education.

According to him, the plan was geared toward providing the necessary infrastructure and facilities to ensure that the right to the basic level and standards were maintained.

He 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.

The permanent secretary 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.

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He also, called on states governments owing teachers’ salaries to take steps in ensuring that teachers were paid as when due and as well motivate teachers adequately for optimal performance.

the Director, Education Support Service of the ministry, Mrs. Justina Ibe, said the Federal Government had not relented in its efforts to ensure that the teaching profession was provided with qualified personnel.

She said that this informed the Ministerial Strategic Plan which were now being implemented gradually with positive results.