FG speaks on ‘planned N350,000 tuition fees’

The Federal Ministry of Education on Wednesday refuted claim that the Federal Government had approved the hike in tuition fees of Nigerian universities to N350,000.

Mr Sonny Echono, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, said there was no such plan.

He spoke in Abuja at a symposium themed: “The Right to Education means the Right to a Qualified Teacher’’.

“The Federal Government did not and has no intention of introducing new tuition fees in our public universities not to mention the figure of 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 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,” he said.

Echono added that the ministry was working toward re-establishing the education bank to address the role of education funding as the government cannot do it alone.

He said 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, adding that the ministry had developed strategies to ensure pupils and students with special needs were carried along.

Echono said 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.