STRIKES: Reps hold summit, seek solutions to problems in Nigeria’s tertiary education

The House of Representatives on Tuesday began a national summit on tertiary education with a view to providing solutions to the myriad of challenges confronting the sector in the country.

The summit was organized under the Office of the House of Representatives Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila and themed: “Re-imagining Tertiary Education in Nigeria: Issues, Challenges and Solutions.”

The summit, according to a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Speaker, Lanre Lasisi, in Abuja on Monday, would end on Wednesday.

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It was meant to address a number of topics, including the need to chart practical ways for robust funding in the tertiary education sector, deepening public-private partnerships and collaboration as well as access to students’ loans.

Other pertinent issues in the summit are modernizing the accreditation, classification and certification of polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education to encourage enrollment, improve training outcomes and enhance employability; reforming methods of sanction, investigation and punishment to prevent academic corruption as well as end sexual coercion and harassment in tertiary Institutions, among others.

Dignitaries scheduled to be in attendance include President Muhammadu Buhari, former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, pro-chancellor and vice chancellors of some universities, notable academicians, among others.

Gbajabiamila was very instrumental to the suspension of eight-month strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in February this year over issues bordering on poor funding of public varsities, method of paying renumeration of lecturers, among others.

He assured univeristy lecturers of continued efforts by the Federal Government to work on the challenges.

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