The Minister of State for Education, Emkeka Nwajiuba, has revealed that tertiary institutions in Nigeria will soon be reopen, while also hinted, that the Federal Government is making effort to end the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike, before schools reopen.
The Minister made this disclosure while speaking in a programme monitored on the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) on Tuesday, August 22.
Nwajiuba added that Universities Vice Chancellors have been advocating for students in exit classes to resume in earnest and Private Schools have also seek permission from the Government to resume.
“Tertiary institutions across the country will open very soon.
“Private universities have written us, requesting that they are allowed to reopen ahead of public institutions. Vice-Chancellors have also requested that we allow them to reopen for their students in exit classes,” he said.
Nwajiuba explained that a large chunk of the populace expects the Federal Government to resolve the ASUU strike before reopening schools. He noted that these set of people have an impression that some Public schools that do not pledge their allegiance with ASUU are aiming at taking advantage of the strike to move ahead, stressing that if this is allowed it would destroy public schools.
The Minister further added that it will be exigent for the National Universities Commission (NUC) to do an appraisal of the state of tertiary institution as they anticipate the reopening of schools.
The Minister also sent a passionate appeal to ASUU to put an end to the strike as their grievances “have more or less been resolved.”
It would be recalled that Nigeria students under the umbrella of National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS), National Association of University Students (NAUS), National Association of College of Education Students (NACES), on Wednesday, embarked on a street protest in Abuja to demand the reopening of schools. As they threaten to carry out similar protest in other 36 states of the federation.
However, with the latest disclosure from the Minister of State for Education, their threat seems to be yielding result as the Government plans to reopen higher institutions in the country soon.
