ACADEMIC Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Port Harcourt zone, has condemned the Federal Government’s plan to set up a bank for university students, saying it will endanger the chances of poor students to get university education on their own terms.
The group spoke yesterday in a statement signed by the zonal Coordinator, Uzo Onyebinama, and ASUU chairmen from universities in the zone – Joseph Omoro, Federal University Owerri; Ugochukwu Agi, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education; Stanley Ogoun, Niger Delta University; Emmanuel Ekwulo, Rivers State University; and Austin Sado, UNIPORT.
It said introducing education bank and students’ loan scheme would increase the cost of accessing university education for the poor but intelligent students.
The statement noted that private universities, which already charge high fees will capitalise on the scheme to make things more difficult for students, and put pressure on public universities to also raise fees, with the belief that students can access loans.
ASUU recommends that instead of the scheme, universities should be well funded.
The union condemned the idea of integrating the education bank and students’loan scheme into the renegotiation deal of the union and the Federal Government, stressing that it will create disharmony between ASUU, students and the public.
It said “…in addition, the government team insisted education ought to be funded from diverse sources and proposes an education bank and students’ loan scheme, with a view of establishing exorbitant tuition and other fees in public universities…’’
“ASUU believes that education is a public good, therefore the union considers the proposal for an education bank and students’loan scheme a deliberate efforts to commercialize public universities and an incentive for private universities to thrive and ultimately deny the children of poor Nigerians access to university education.”
In their view, the idea of introducing education bank and students’loan scheme into the Union’s renegotiation talk with the FGN as an attempt to create undue rift between ASUU, Nigerian students and the public.
“It is important to note that ASUU has demonstrated it’s belief in dialogue and due process by subscribing to the renegotiation process despite the fact that many components of the agreement and the subsequent memorandum of understanding(MOU) and Memorandum of Action(MOA) arising there from have not been implemented.
“We are using this medium to appeal to well meaning Nigerians tonprevail on the FG to show good faith and restart the renegotiation process by reconstituting the current government team and implementing the outstanding components of the 2017 MOA through the release of the forensic audit report on the payment of the Earned Academic Allowance (EAA).”
They are also demanding for the payment of arrears of EAA between 2009 and 2012, as well as the “mainstreaming of the EAA into the annual budget; including the payment of all arrears of salary shortfalls in all universities that have been verified under the presidential initiative on continuous Auditing (PICA), and the payment of EAA claims of genuine ASUU members in the University of Ilorin.