The Federal Government on Wednesday debunked claims by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), that it is planning to force students in public universities pay N350,000 tuition fees per session.

Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Sonny Echono, while reacting to the allegation by the ASUU, said pointedly that there was no iota of truth in the speculation.

Echono spoke at the World Teachers’ Day Symposium in Abuja, where he also revealed that by 2020, teachers that do not have requisite qualification would be flushed out of the system.

He insisted that the Federal Government institutions are tuition-free and that the current administration has not contemplated introduction of tuition fees or approving such humongous charges of N350,000 in public universities.

He, however, said what was true was the made mention of re-establishment of Education Bank, Echono, explained would serve not just for the purpose of students’ loan but also provide resources for private sector operatives intervening in the education sector.
Ibadan Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Dr Ade Adejumo, who raised the concerns about fee hike, had told newsmen that the objection of the union to the proposed tuition fee increase led to the collapse of 2017/2018 Renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement.

He said: “The union is again constrained to draw the attention of Nigerian public to an impending labour crisis in the Nigerian universities as a result of the insensitivity and nonchalance of the Federal Government to issues critical to the survival of the educational system.”

But the Permanent Secretary, who represented Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu at the symposium, deviated to react to the ASUU claims insisted that Federal Government has no plan to introduce tuition fees or approved increase of tuition fees in public universities.

He said: “Ordinarily, we will not have responded to it but because ASUU is a very responsible organisation and have been our partners, so, it is better that we correct the impression.

“The Federal Government did not and has no intention of introducing tuition fees in our universities, not to even mention a humongous figure of N350,000.

“This can easily be verified, the students have just registered for school now and their parents are aware of how much they paid.

“What is true is that because of the commitment of the present administration to guarantee the right of the Nigerian child not only to education but to be positively engaged, the President directed that the Ministry along with Ministry of Finance, should jointly organise a workshop that will come up with sustainable and very workable recommendation on funding education in Nigeria.

•Excerpted from a Tribune report