The Federal Government has accused the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other university staff unions of not justifying its investment in education.
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who disclosed this on Thursday at the 2021 annual 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 N400 billion is different from the N1.3 trillion the Buhari administration has spent on capital expenditure in the nation tertiary institutions.
“During my briefing in May last year, I told you that the Administration of President Muhammed Buhari has committed a total of N1.3 trillion of capital expenditure in our tertiary institutions,” Adamu said.
“In the last one year, TETfund has committed a total of over three hundred an ninety five billion to the development of infrastructure in tertiary institutions. This is aside from some budgetary allocations and revitalization funds to universities.”
The minister 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.
He lamented that despite of the huge commitment by the administration, ASUU has been on strike for almost a year over the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) but however 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 million 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.
“So far, we have launched the BESDA in ten states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Ebonyi, Kano, Kebbi, Oyo, Yobe, Niger and Zamfara,” Adamu said.
Adamu disclosed that the figure of out-of-school school children in the country has been reduced from 10.1 million in 2019 to 2020 down to 6,946,328 million.
“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.”
On the revitalization of the teaching profession policies, 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 and 40 years of service, January 1, 2022.”
According to him, the effective dates of other policies will be announced subsequently after the submission of the report of the national coordinating committees.
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