The federal government has expressed opposition to the proposals by the National Assembly for creation of nearly 200 new universities in the country.

It said with almost 200 bills in the National Assembly for establishment of new universities, there is a growing concern that the system is becoming overwhelmed.

The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, stated this in Abuja yesterday during the third edition of the 2025 Ministerial Press Briefing.

Daily Trust reports that the country currently has 278 universities, 64 of which are federal; 67, state; and 147, private.

The government had, last month, announced a one-year moratorium on the establishment of new private universities ?to enhance the quality and sustainability of private universities, ensuring that only institutions with the necessary financial and academic capacity are granted licenses.?

The minister yesterday emphasised that strengthening the capacities of the existing universities is more important than establishing new ones.

He said: ?They (lawmakers) are passing a lot of bills. Today, I can tell you that there are almost 200 bills in the National Assembly. We can?t continue like this. Even though we have a lot of them, the capacity for a university to admit is not there. What we need to do now is to rebuild the capacities so that we can offer more viable courses to our citizens.

?We need to stop this (the 200 bills for new universities) from happening. There is so much pressure on the president. We have to, at least, be sensitive to it as well.

?I understand the sentiment of our legislators. They want to show that they are working. We know they are working. But then, we have enough assets, 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 infrastructures, build engineering workshops, build laboratories in these universities, recruit international standard teachers, so that we can begin to get these universities to develop, to deliver high quality of education that will be known for as a country.

?Today, if you care to know, we have 64 federal universities, 67 state universities and 147 private universities. If you look at the entire enrolment together, the private universities account for just 7.5% of total undergraduate enrolment. I will tell you the meaning of the number. The total number of undergraduate enrolments today is just about 875,000, which is, at least, fairly low.

?We have universities with less than 1,000 undergraduate students, and there is this intense demand for more universities to be opened. We have to stop that.?

Daily Trust reports that it is not only the legislators that are obsessed with pushing for the establishing of universities as constituency project or for status symbol.

For instance, while the government has put temporary stop to the process of registering new private universities, it has, however, continued to give approval for the establishment of federal universities, some at the instance of some powerful individuals in the executive arm, or through collaboration with the legislators.

Not long ago, President Tinubu assented to two separate bills establishing the Federal University of Agriculture and Development Studies, Iragbiji, Osun State and the Federal University of Technology and Environmental Sciences, Iyin Ekiti, Ekiti State.

On February 3, the president also approved the establishment of the Federal University of Environment and Technology (FUET) in the Ogoni town of Tai, Rivers State.

The president had earlier assented to the takeover and conversion of the forfeited privately owned NOK University, Kachia in Southern Kaduna to Federal University of Applied Sciences, Kachia, among others.

Also within the time under review, the federal government approved the establishment of 11 private universities.

These include: New City University, Ayetoro, Ogun State; University of Fortune, Igbotako, Ondo State; Eranova University, Mabushi, Abuja; Minaret University, Ikirun, Osun State; Abubakar Toyin University, Oke-Agba, Kwara State and Southern Atlantic University, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

Others are Lens University, Ilemona, Kwara State; Monarch University, Iyesi-Ota, Ogun State; Tonnie Iredia University of Communication, Benin City, Edo State; Isaac Balami University of Aeronautics and Management, Lagos State and Kevin Eze University, Mgbowo, Enugu State.

Senate, reps mum

When contacted for reactions to the government?s opposition to the National Assembly?s proposals for creation of 200 new universities, the spokesmen of the Senate and the House of Representatives, Senator Yemi Adaramodu and Honourable Akin Rotimi respectively, neither answered several calls nor replied text and WhatsApp messages sent to their mobile telephone lines by our correspondents.

The deputy spokesman of the House, Philip Agbese and the chairman of the House Committee on University Education, Hassan Fulata, also declined comment.

School feeding, vocational training for almajirai; grants for Tsangaya teachers

Alausa said the government had devised measures to provide almajirai with school feeding and vocational training programmes; and grants for Tsangaya and Quranic teachers.

?We have had programmes before that just brought numeracy and literacy to these schools. We are adding vocational education to the Almajirai.

?We have done a clear mapping of these Almajirai, and we are also including the Tsangaya schools and the Quranic schools. We have now laid out clear delivery link indicators that we will be using to give grants to the teachers of these Almajiri schools.

?We are linking those grants to the extent in which they let us bring in numeracy, literacy, and vocational skills. We now have skills that they can learn quickly; vulcanising, plumbing and electrical work,? he said.

The minister also said the mallams teaching the Almajirai need financial support.

?When government starts giving this financial support, those kids will not go out. And it is also linked to what?s causing the migration. Over 90% of those kids are coming from the rural areas. Those parents don?t have money to feed their kids. That is why they send them to the urban areas to be trained on how to recite, memorise the Quran, and other trainings.

?We are also going to the source of the problems. We are designing some conditional transfers. That is why this school feeding is really key to us.

?By the time we go right into the communities, we?re helping the mothers with conditional cash transfers. That is linked to the children going to school. We will monitor the attendance percentage. If they don?t meet over 75% attendance in school, they won?t get those grants. As we do that, year after year, the number of kids, the large urban migration of these kids will reduce significantly and also, the ones that are already there, we are now incentivising, collaborating with the mallams, and those schools who are working with sub-national governments.?

The minister said most of the 115 almajiri schools built by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan were dilapidated.

He said the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and the Almajiri Commission were collaborating on how to revitalise the schools.

?The Almajiri Commission will take over those schools. They can operate schools now. So, they will be operating those schools.

We?ve designed additional funding from UBEC to the Almajiri Commission for the Nomadic Education Commission as well.

?We?ve designed our own pay-for-performance which UBEC will be using. So, going forward, we will be seeing a lot of improvement in the level of instruction that we are giving to our kids in these almajiri schools and our kids across the country. It?s not a case of just disbursing money and not monitoring that money. That has changed completely, it has changed forever.?

The minister also called on specialised universities in the country to stop offering courses outside of their mandates.

He stressed the need to reduce the number of non-technical courses offered in specialised universities and, instead, make them available in conventional universities.

Alausa further stated that the Education Tax Fund would continue indefinitely.

?What we need to do now is to begin to open up more resources to develop infrastructures, build engineering workshops, and build laboratories in these universities,? he stated.

Govt declares 6-month free skills training

Alausa also announced that the government would offer six-month free skills training to Nigerians to address the two million job gaps in the country.

He said the ministry was implementing measures to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education to meet the country?s skill gaps.

?We are doing this through our Digital Training Academy (DTA), which will equip students with the skills needed to support various industries. Based on UNESCO data, there are 650,000 vacancies in software development methodologies, 280,000 in cybersecurity, 160,000 in IT and automation.

?Others are 150,000 in AI and machine learning, 120,000 in cloud computing, and about 60,000 vacancies worldwide in natural language processing. Add that together, we have almost two million job vacancies out there. So what we?re doing with Digital Training Academy is working with trainers now, that will offer six- months to people, young engineers, to get this training.?

He said the ministry was putting measures in place to encourage Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to meet the areas of need of the country, saying, ?We are doing this through our Digital Training Academy (DTA) to give students skills to service the industries.?

?We, as a government, will pay for their internet services, pay for their certification- Cisco certification, End of Career certification, and Google certification,? he said.

Alausa said this strategy would give Nigerians new digital skills that they need to stand out in the world.

He added that the training would be launched on or before June 2025.

Speaking on vocational and technical training in schools, the minister said President Tinubu had approved N120 billion as a start-up for students? entrepreneurial mode.

He said they are presently focusing on the value chain in technical education where practical education would be given to train artisans.

He explained that a dual mode of training would be given, which would allow students to spend three days in school, one day for gigantic training and one day in the workshop.

Alausa said the government was working on a clear strategy to improve the country?s education sector by increasing access, improving quality and enhancing the education system for foundational learning.

Tinubu approves N40bn for National Library completion

The minister also disclosed that President Tinubu had approved N40 billion to commence work on the uncompleted National Library site to support academic and research needs. (Daily Trust)

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