The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said that the presidency was working towards stabilising the educational system to get parents retaining their children to learn in the country’s tertiary institutions.
Shehu said this on the sideline of the 11th Graduation Ceremony of Glisten International Academy, in Abuja on Saturday.
The theme of the ceremony is ” “Exponential Visibility: Breaking the Glass Ceiling.
The special assistant whose son is also graduating from the school, advised the students to make good use of their studies
“For the graduating students, I want to say that they have a major decision to make which is going to the next level in their education pursuit.
“You can see that a lot of foreign institutions are extending invitation to the students at discounted rate to study oversees .
” I will say that Nigerian Universities are equally as good and even better and we are hoping that we will be able to stabilise the university education in the country so that parents don’t have to pay exorbitantly to educate their children abroad.
“University education in Nigeria should be the best for our children,” he said.
Shehu, while reacting to the recent extension of the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) by one month, called on parents to join the government in begging the union to return to classroom.
”It came like a bolt in the sky. We are shocked because it came at a time the president is giving full commitment to resolving the ASUU strike and having the students and teachers back in the school.
”The extension, I believe should not have been done because the spirit at which the government now is trying to resolve the problems of ASUU is such that there should also be a benefit of doubt in favour of the government on the part of ASUU,” he said.
He, therefore, hoped that early resolution would be done so that normalcy would return, saying the lecturers could return to classroom while discussions on their issues could proceed.
“The strike is unnecessarily extended and this should not have been the case.
“I want to advise parents to join government in begging ASUU to end this strike as the government is doing its part and parents are worried and they should start talking to ASUU,” he added.
