President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, has reacted to a preposition by the National Parent-Teacher Association of Nigeria for each parent to contribute N10,000 to support lecturers in varsities.
This is the parents’ desparate move as ASUU’s strike endlessly leave students redundant.
The union’s leader, however, said the gesture was not the solution.
Instead, he said, the parents should prevail on the government to fund the sector.
Speaking on ‘Arise TV’ on Thursday, he said:
“I think what this association should be doing is to tell the government to perform its function. They should put pressure on the government to use Nigerians’ money to fund education as it is done in other countries.
“We can’t be calling ourselves the giant of Africa and we are the worst in education. You see students from Nigeria going to Ghana, Benin Republic, Togo, and other small countries to study but nobody from these countries is coming to Nigeria to study.
“So they should add to the pressure coming from ASUU to ensure that the government prioritise education. That is more important than the N10,000”.
Meanwhile, the PTA had said: “We have submitted a letter to the Office of the Education Minister, seeking an audience where we hope to discuss a proposal.
“We are proposing a sum of N10, 000 per parent every session that will be directly paid to the universities. That will be our own contribution apart from other statutory payments in making more funds available to the universities.
“It can be called parent support levy for universities. We are at the receiving end of the industrial action. We plead with the ASUU and Federal Government to immediately resolve their differences,” NAPTAN’s Public Relations Officer, Dr. Ademola Ekundayo, disclosed this during an interview with The PUNCH on Tuesday.
