RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Politics/Economics of 6 (or 12?) New Universities in Nigeria

A few Notes on the 6 approved Federal Universities :
I read this innovation with mixed reaction. In the early 1950s, the Regional Governments of Nigeria embarked on Free Primary Education which paved way for the NEED to have additional Trained Teachers. I happened to be a Student Teacher then.The main purpose was to have a two tier system namely, Elementary Teachres Program (2 Years), Higher Elementary another ( 2 years) after which  individual could make progress with time. Today, the NEED to open 6 Universities for the purpose of Training Teachers for Primary School Programmes is not a well conceived policy because there are several hundreds of Graduates in Nigeria that have no Jobs. The Federal Government is very much familiar with this problem. These students who have Trained themselves could be hired to handle the Teaching Programmes at the Primary Level. To me the Federal Government is not Forward looking in their ambition to " Specifically Approve 6 Universities' for Primary education. Please use already Graduated Nigerians. Encourage other Universities in Nigeria to Train more teachers if you need additional. The money which you have now could be wisely spent to expand the Programmes of Education in the  existing over 100 Nigerian Universities.  Please let us think rationally.
Thank you,
Professor Oladimeji Aborisade,
University of North carolina at Charlotte.
Email: olaaborisade@msn.com
 
> Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2010 05:11:39 +0100
> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Politics/Economics of 6 (or 12?) New Universities in Nigeria
> From: asonzeh.ukah@uni-bayreuth.de
> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
>
> FG approves N10bn for 6 new varsities, plans degree as minimum teaching
> qualification in primary schools
> From ISAAC ANUMIHE, Abuja
> Friday, November 12, 2010
>
>
> Following the approval of six Federal Universities on Wednesday by the
> Federal Executive Council (FEC), the Federal Government, yesterday
> approved N10 billion for the take-off of the proposed institutions. This
> came as the Federal Government considered bachelors degree as minimum
> teaching qualification the primary and secondary schools in the country.
>
> This implies that the former minimum qualification of the National College
> of Education Certificate (NCE) would soon be scrapped and the future of
> polytechnic education, seriously threatened. To this effect, the Federal
> Government yesterday inaugurated a committee to work out the modalities
> for establishing the varsities which will be sited in Bayelsa, Jigawa and
> other states where Federal universities are absent.
>
> Members of the committee include the Executive Secretary of National
> Universities Commission (NUC) as chairman and the CEO/PSE as secretary.
> Other members are Executive Secretary of National Board for Technical
> Education (NBTE); Executive Secretary, National Colleges of Education
> Commission (NCCE); Executive Secretary Education Trust Fund (ETF) and
> Deputy Director, PSE.
>
> They also include; Deputy Director, Universities; Deputy Director,
> Polytechnics; Deputy Director, Colleges of Education; representative of
> Department, Basic Education and two external members.
> The committee has the mandate to develop the modalities for the setting up
> of six new universities in Nigeria considering the location (one per
> geographical zone, in a state that does not currently have a Federal
> university), proposed size (considering that it may not be the size of a
> conventional university as it currently exists in Nigeria); detailed
> costing of each university in developmental phases; required take-off
> grant for the first phase of each university and mode of funding.
>
> The committee was also charged to consider the future of the Colleges of
> Education and the resultant NCE qualification; consider the future of
> mono-discipline universities; develop two council memos (one for the
> establishment of six new universities and the other, for the future of
> colleges of education, polytechnics and mono-discipline universities for
> deliberation at the next Federal Executive Council meeting, on Wednesday,
> next week.
>
> While inaugurating the committee, the Minister of State for Education,
> Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, declared that the Federal Government has approved
> N10 billion for the take-off of the universities and that the committee
> has till Monday, next week to submit its report. He noted that although 12
> new Federal universities were approved, six of them would receive
> immediate attention while the committee is required to recommend a
> time-frame, states and towns for the location of the other six.
> ***
>
>
> But continue with this addition....
>
>
> New varsities: Avenue to siphon money for 2011 elections –CPC
> …'We're not idiots, stop playing to the gallery'
> From: FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Abuja
> Friday, November 12, 2010
>
>
> General Mohammed Buhari's Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has
> described the decision of the government to establish six more
> universities in each of the six geo-political zones as a surreptitious
> move to siphon public resources to help the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
> in 2011 general elections.
>
> Besides, the party which asked that the projects be stopped, said
> President Goodluck Jonathan should be told that "Nigerians are not idiots
> and that there is limit to which one can be played around."
>
> Faulting the decision, CPC said the planned universities would end up as
> white elephant projects because the existing ones were starved of funds
> and were therefore in comatose with their teachers complaining every time.
> National Publicity Secretary of the party, Dennis Aghanya in his reaction
> to the development, said by the decision, government was just playing to
> the gallery to score cheap political points.
>
> "All the existing federal and state universities in the country are in
> comatose because of the lack of infrastructures and desired manpower to
> get them to a reasonable learning standard. It is no more history that
> Nigerians studying in neighbouring West African countries alone, in search
> of quality education, constitutes a major source of economic loss to the
> country," he stated.
>
> Recalling that the universities in the South-east had been under lock and
> key for months with the authorities obviously not worried, CPC said the
> move to establish more universities could not impress anyone because it
> was misplaced.
> While noting that corruption had been the bane of the nation's education
> underdevelopment, the CPC asked the government to use the money that would
> be used for new institutions to resuscitate the ones in dire need of funds
> to function well.
>
> It stated: "For the past months, all the South-east state universities
> have been on strike. Yet, it is not a source of worry to our shameless
> leadership in the country. President Goodluck Jonathan should be informed
> that Nigerians are not idiots and that there is limit to which one can be
> played around. We are ready to resist his corrupt and imperialistic
> tendencies inherited from his master.
>
> "Corruption has been the bane of the country's economic woes and no
> genuine effort seems to be in place to tackle this canker worm. The fight
> against corruption by the PDP government since 1999 has been a lip
> service. "Funds voted for the UBE programmes are used by the governors as
> if they are meant for their security votes, in addition to the local
> governments' allocations which are at their beck and call. Our primary
> schools are in sorry sights, yet billions of naira is voted every quarter
> in the name of UBE programmes.
>
> "Our existing universities are nothing better than glorified nursery
> schools. The lecturers barely access funds for necessary research work."
> CPC then advised government to channel that huge sum earmarked for the
> white-elephant project into the existing universities saying; "their
> structures can be expanded and improved on to accommodate more students
> seeking admission into our universities."
>
>
> --
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