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FG hands over varsity hostels to
estate agents
By Tom Chiahemen
Senior
Correspondent, Abuja
A new vista in the management of residential hostels in
higher institutions of learning across the country was reached on Thursday as
the Federal Government handed over the management of students’ hostels to
estate managers.
With this move, the management of these facilities have been
removed from the direct control of all institutions of higher learning in the
country. Minister of Education, Prof. Fabian Osuji, announced this at a meeting
with heads of federal tertiary institutions in Abuja to address some key issues
related to governance in nation’s federal universities, polytechnics and
Colleges of Education.
“Government directs that all institutions of higher
education in Nigeria must immediately commence intense consultations with all
stakeholders (including, but not restricted to students, parents, alumni,
professional bodies, the private sector and community heads) with a view to
designing modalities for the effective management of the existing hostels as
well as the provision of new ones, outside the day-to-day control of the
administrations of the institutions,” he stated.
He explained that the decision of the government followed
the recommendations of the Committee set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo
earlier in the year in response to the protests by students against the N10,000
fee for hostel accommodation per person as against the extant N90 which had
prevailed for over three decades.
According to the minister, the authorities of the
universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education were being asked to hands
off the management of students hostel because “they have so far been
unable to provide conducive living environments for our students.”
He said the Committee had, in its report, affirmed the fear
of government that most institutions had in fact failed to provide decent
living places for their students. “The conditions of the hostels as
described by the report of the committee were appalling and in many cases unfit
for the habitation of our students,” he noted.
He said it was in an effort to put in place a sustainable
system of accommodation provision which must meet a certain level of decency
that the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development had been in active
consultation with his ministry and the National Universities Commission (NUC),
with a view to assisting with the provision of additional modern housing for
both students and staff of higher institutions.
The Minister said the Executive Secretaries of the NUC,
National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the National Commission for
Colleges of Education (NCCE) had been directed to ensure that appropriate
standards and guidelines were provided to their respective institutions in this
matter and to formally confirm full compliance to his office before December
30, 2004.
“Following proper implementation of these directives,
administrations of our institutions will now be freed to concentrate on
providing adequate academic facilities for students,” said Prof. Osuji.
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