Tuesday, July 16, 2024 - The Federal Government says it has no plan to hand over public universities to private investors.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir
Mamman, said this at the Second Quarterly Engagement of the Ministry with Heads
of Units and Chief Executive Officers of parastatals and agencies under the
Ministry.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the
Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, had accused the federal government
of plans to hand over federal universities to investors through public-private
partnerships.
”There is no plan to sell off universities
to investors,” he said, noting the policy of the government allowed for
transnational education.
According to him, transnational education is
a policy on what the current administration is doing to open up tertiary
education by taking people from the rest of the world to invest in the tertiary
system.
“Some people are carrying information that
the federal government is selling off to private investors its universities.
This is an absolute lie and completely false.
“This government believes in our public
institutions. However, as we all know this government has reforms that this
country needs.
“The private sector will play a major role
in the provision of tertiary education as there are more private universities
in Nigeria than public universities combined.
“What this government has done is to open up
the tertiary education level in particular the universities for global
competitiveness,” he said.
The minister stressed the need to allow
those who operate universities at the international level to come into the
country and set up institutions either for themselves or in collaboration with
the nation’s local universities.
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