The Nasarawa State Government has placed embargo on the employment of non-academic staff in three of its tertiary institutions.
Commissioner of Education Tijjani Ahmed, disclose this during a tour of Nasarawa State Polytechnic, Lafia, on Thursday.
“In the course of my tour of College of Education, Akwanga, College of Agriculture, Lafia, and the polytechnic, I discovered that the non-academic staff outnumbered the academic staff.
“This situation is not healthy for a higher institution to have more non-teaching staff than teaching staff.
“Therefore, as from now henceforth, no head of any tertiary institution in the state should employ any non-teaching staff till further notice.’’
Ahmed explained that the government would give priority to the employment of more academic staff in order to meet up the necessary requirements for accreditation of courses in the three institutions.
He directed all the institutions to write formally to the government through the ministry on the number of academic staff required in all departments for consideration.
The commissioner also directed all heads of tertiary institutions in the state to capture all the challenges confronting them in the 2018 budget proposal, for onward submission to the house of assembly.
Dr Silas Gyar, Rector of the polytechnic, said that lack of accreditation was the major challenge facing the institution.
Gyar expressed gratitude to the state government for acquiring land for the school and building first set of hostels since the establishment of the institution in 2011.
He appealed to the state government to increase the institution’s funding to enable it settle outstanding salaries and allowances of staff.