Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu has asked the National Association of Nigeria Students, NANS to take the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to court and claim damages for the long period of the strike.
Adamu made the charge to State House Correspondents during his appearance at the weekly press briefing organized by the Presidential Communication Team, at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja on Thursday.
The minister suggested that the affected students should “take ASUU to court” to claim damages incurred over the strike period.
He said that the blame was not on the Federal Government.
He stated that the Federal Government bears no liability to compensate millions of students grounded for six months over lost time, stressing that if the students are determined to get compensated, they should take ASUU to court.
Speaking more on the recurring strike that has crippled the university system, the minister said it is important for the public to be aware that “the Federal Government is paying the salaries of every staff in its tertiary institutions, academic and non-academic staff.
He emphasizes the fact that the University institutions are also in full control of their internally generated revenue (IGR).
“We are doing everything humanly possible to conclude the negotiations. We hope that the outcome of the renegotiations will bring lasting industrial peace to our campuses. In the main time, I am sure that the current efforts would yield the desired results and return our children to school.”
Adamu also called for a crackdown on perpetrators of examination malpractice, which he said has been covered to be a cartel.
The Minister called on the examiners to work closely with law enforcement agencies to “crackdown on examination malpractice”.
According to him, despite efforts to raise the integrity of the examination system in schools nationwide, the Ministry still grapples with malpractice perpetrated both at the exams councils and school levels.
He commended the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board, JAMB, for its efforts at stemming malpractices, stating that more works need to be done.
The minister also said that the Buhari administration has expended a total of N6,003,947,848,237 in capital and recurrent expenditure in the education sector in the last seven years.
Adamu explained that this was in addition to interventions from TETFund and UBEC amounting to N2.5 trillion and N553,134,967,498 respectively in capital investment.
“We must also note and appreciate the huge investments from States and the private sector at all levels of our educational system.
” We will continue to improve on the implementation of the Ministerial Strategic Plan (MSP) all through to 2023 for the overall development of the education sector and the Nigerian nation
“We will continue to create the necessary enabling environment to attract more and more private sector investment. We shall hand over a better education sector than we met it.” He said.
According to Adamu, the number of out-of-school children has dropped from an estimated 13 million to 6.9 million, with an impressive enrollment from online states of Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto, and Gombe, Bauchi, Adamawa, Taraba, Rivers, and the Ebonyi States.
According to him, the increased enrollment in activities of the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA).
