THE Federal Government will engage the leadership of Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU) in a crucial talks today, in a move to end
the ongoing strike by the union.
Minister of Education, Professor
Ruqa’yyatu Ahmed Rufa’i, made this known in Abuja, on Monday, saying
reasonable progress had been made in the ongoing efforts to get the
lecturers back to classroom.
She noted that a presidential
intervention of N100 billion had been released to the implementation
committee of the Needs Assessment Report, which has the Benue State
governor, Gabriel Suswam, as chairman.
Professor Rufa’i, who spoke
while declaring open the mid-term review of the four-year strategy plan
for the development of the education sector, said this was to address
some of the identifiable challenges in the nation’s university system.
She
said it was as a result of the resolve to address all challenges facing
the sector that assessments of each area of the education sector were
carried out.
“We have done this for the federal unity schools and it
is helping in their transformation. The recent one carried out for all
public universities has led to a presidential intervention to ensure
that challenges identified are given due attention.
“As a result,
N100 billion has been committed to this and the president has
inaugurated an implementation committee chaired by Governor Suswam,” she
said.
The minister said the implementation of the four-year
strategic plan (2011-2015) was on course, stressing that credible
progress had been made in the six focal areas as outlined in the plan.
She
reaffirmed the commitment to move the sector ahead, saying “we shall
continue to dig deep and identify further challenges and address them.”
Professor
Rufa’i, therefore, appealed to all stakeholders to continue to show
understanding, support and partnership, noting that “our actions today
will define where we are tomorrow.”
She added that government would
continue to dialogue with ASUU in order to end the ongoing strike that
had crippled academic activities in government’s universities in
Nigeria.
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