The Federal Government has described false claims and allegations being carried out in some quarters that it planned to hand over public universities to private investors.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, while responding to the allegation on Tuesday in Abuja, said this was an absolute lie and completely false.
Mamman made the clarification at the second quarterly engagement of the ministry with heads of units and chief executive officers of parastatals and agencies under the ministry.
Recall that members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had accused the Federal Government of plans to hand over federal universities to investors through public-private partnerships.
He emphasised that there was no such plan to sell off universities to investors.
Mamman noted that the policy of transnational education should not be misconstrued in any way as a plan by the government to hand over universities to private investors.
He explained that the current administration introduced the transnational education policy with the aim of opening up tertiary education by taking people from the rest of the world to come and invest in the tertiary education system in Nigeria.
He said, “Some people are carrying information that the federal government is selling off its universities to private investors. This is an absolute lie and completely false.
“This government believes in our public institutions. However, as we all know, this government has reforms that this country needs.
“The private sector will play a major role in the provision of tertiary education, as there are more private universities in Nigeria than public universities combined.
“What this government has done is open up the tertiary education level, in particular the universities, for global competitiveness,” Mamman stated.
He said there is a need to allow those who operate universities at the international level to come into the country and set up institutions either for themselves or in collaboration with our local universities.
He said that this was in no way to sell its institutions, noting that guidelines on transnational education had been in place.
Mamman insisted Nigeria take a cue from what is obtainable in other countries so as to benefit from the advantage of transnational education.
“In other parts of the world, like Asia, they have benefited immensely from having international institutions in those countries.
“They have set standards for those countries and also for the exchange and bringing money to those countries,” he said.
The Minister informed newsmen that the engagement with heads of agencies as parastatals was to review the progress and challenges and reaffirm commitment towards the educational landscape of the country.
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