BY: News Peddlers
The federal government has stated that the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is to blame for the delay in the payment of bursary allowance to students enrolled in tertiary education courses.
The Federal Ministry of Education's permanent secretary, David Gende, who represented the minister, Malam Adamu Adamu, at the 2022 World Teachers Day (WTD) press briefing in Abuja yesterday, said ASUU's strike has delayed the implementation of the packages.
During the 2021 Teachers Day commemoration, the federal government announced that students pursuing degree programs in education at public universities and colleges of education across Nigeria will receive N75,000 and N50,000 stipends per semester, respectively.
"Most importantly, I support giving bursary awards to all students of education," he said. "In fact, the Ministry of Education intends to try to start it this year. It has not yet begun due to the current strike, but we have approximately 70% of the data for the universities, so at least the provision of bursary awards to education students will begin this year."
He also stated that the government has begun to implement the 65-year retirement age for teachers in public schools, including the 40-year pensionable service, in earnest.
He also stated that the national implementation of the New National Teaching Policy has begun, describing it as a comprehensive package that will eventually address teachers' career paths, remuneration, professional teaching standards, qualification, deployment, and management.