From Adetutu Folasade-Koyi and Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said on Thursday that the Federal Ministry of Education and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu are under pressure to establish new universities in various locations across the country, mostly for political reasons.
The Minister, speaking at the ministerial press briefing in Abuja, said the pressure is primarily from members of the National Assembly, stating that about 200 bills seeking the establishment of new universities are currently before the National Assembly.
He said: ‘Our legislators need to stop the floodgate. There’s so much pressure on the President. We have to, at least, be sensitive to him as well. They’re passing a lot of bills. Today, I can tell you there are almost 200 bills in the National Assembly for the establishment of new universities to open. We can’t continue this.
‘Even the ones we have, we don’t have enough infrastructure there. The capacity for a university to admit isn’t there. What we need to do now is to rebuild the capacities to ensure that we can offer more viable courses to our citizens.
‘Today, if you care to know, we have about 64 federal universities, 68 state universities, and 138 private universities. If you put the entire enrolment together, the 138 private universities account for just about 7.5 per cent of total undergraduate enrolment. Even in our 64 federal universities, the total number of undergraduate enrolment today is just about 875,000, which is abysmally low.
‘We have universities with fewer than 1,000 undergraduate students, and there’s this intense clamour for more universities to be opened. We have to stop that. We have a clear plan. The President has given tentative approval. We’re working on the document and memo to address that.
‘We have enough opportunities out there for students to go to universities. What we now need to do is to begin to mobilise more resources to develop infrastructure, build engineering workshops, and build laboratories in these universities, recruit international-standard teachers so that we can begin to get these universities to develop and deliver the high quality of education that we will be known for as a country.’
The Minister further dispelled fears that the new tax regime might affect the funding of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), an intervention agency established to improve infrastructure and other facilities in public tertiary institutions.
He said: ‘You must have heard some information with the new tax bill about the funding of TETFund, which indicated that funding of the agency, alongside NITDA and NASENI, might end by 2030.
‘We are working with the tax reform committee. We also work with the National Assembly. I can report to you now that’s not going to be the case. Funding for TETFund will continue into eternity. The education tax that will go to TETFund will continue into eternity. I don’t want to pre-empt the legislators on the outcome of the tax reform system.
‘They’re working on various amendments to the tax bill, but by the time the final document is passed, the education tax money for TETFund will be protected, as will that for NITDA and NASENI. And I can assure you that with the new development tax levy, the percentage to TETFund has been increased.’