Tertiary institutions across the country may reopen very soon, the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, has announced.
He however said the National Universities Commission, NUC, would have to appraise the situations of the institutions before they would be reopened.
The minister, who spoke on a Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, programme on Saturday, added that the government was also planning on how to end the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, before the schools are reopened.
Said he: “Tertiary institutions across the country will open very soon.
“Private universities have written us, requesting that they are allowed to reopen ahead of public institutions. Vice-chancellors have also requested that we allow them to reopen for their students in exit classes.
“We have also a lot of calls from bodies who want us to resolve the industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities before reopening because some public schools which are not ASUU-prone want to take the advantage of the strike to move ahead, but that would destroy our public schools. So, we are working on all these calls.”
He stated further: “We are waiting for the same from other tertiary institutions bodies so I can situate them and present to the PTF on COVID-19.
“I can’t give the NUC a deadline on this because our job at the ministry is to wait for their inputs. This is not a political decision alone.
“If you open the university system, you have opened the country.”
