ASUU rejects N10,000 levy NAPTAN’s education support – Osodeke

 

Emmanuel Osodeke, the president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has rejected the proposal by the National Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) that parents should pay N10, 000 per student to support university education.

Osodeke disclosed this on Thursday, while on Arise Television in an interview.

Reacting to the statement by Ademola Ekundayo, the national public relations officer of NAPTAN who on Tuesday, August 23 in Osogbo said that the body had written to Adamu Adamu, the minister of education proposing a levy of N10,000 per parent to support the government in funding university education.

“What parents should do is to also join ASUU and others in putting pressure on the government to do the needful and fund education at all levels the way it should be funded. Why is it that it is only education that they don’t have money to spend on? They have more than enough public money to spend on themselves and their families.

“We cannot be calling ourselves the giant of Africa and we will be lagging behind countries such as Togo, Benin Republic, Ghana, and others in education. Our people are spending billions of dollars getting educated in those places.

“It is the government that should get its priorities right. If they accord education the attention it deserves, things would be well,” he said.

Similarly, Haruna Danjuma, the national president of NAPTAN denied being aware of the proposal.

“We all want our children to resume as soon as possible and we are also ready to take steps to put an end to the ongoing strike. However, I am not aware of the proposed N10,000 Support Levy. The person who said that did not inform me and it was not discussed by the national leadership of the association.

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“Be that as it may, such a levy would only add to the burden of parents, some of whom are reeling under the yoke of the economic downturn in the country.

Moreover, would the money be paid to accounts of universities, and who manages it? Or is that the government would add it to the fees being charged to the students? I have received lots of calls from parents complaining about it,” Danjuma said.

Meanwhile, ASUU will meet on Sunday, August 28, to decide whether to call off the strike or to indefinitely extend it. The public university lecturers have been on industrial action since February 14.