ASUU: FG Blames Strike For Delayed Bursary Payment

The Federal Ministry of Education on Monday blamed the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for the delay in the payment of bursaries to education students in universities.

This was disclosed by the permanent secretary of the ministry, Andrew Adejo, made this known during the 2022 World Teachers Day press briefing in Abuja.

President Muhammadu Buhari had in 2021 through Education Minister Adamu Adamu promised to release bursaries to students studying education in Nigerian universities and colleges of education.

“Undergraduates of B.Ed/B.A. Ed/BSc. Ed in Public institutions are to receive stipends of N75,000.00 per semester while NCE students will get N50,000.00 as stipends per semester.

“Federal Government should find the modality through which respective states’ governments could provide automatic employment for NCE graduates at Basic Education level,” Adamu Adamu had said. 

Speaking to journalists during the briefing, Adejo said, “The implementation of the payment of stipends has commenced.

"However, due to the strike, we have not been able to get the data of all the students in universities. We only have 7 per cent of the required data to be processed for payment.”

The secretary of the ministry added that,  “I must state here that the national implementation of the New National Teaching Policy has commenced. 

"It is a holistic package that will ultimately address the career path, remuneration, professional teaching standards, qualification, deployment and management of teachers.

“The theme for the year 2022 WTD which is ‘the transformation of education begins with teachers’ strongly stresses the importance of empowering teachers for the effective transformation of education to ensure quality teaching and learning as well as galvanize technological advancements to meet the ever-changing needs for national growth and development.”