The Federal Government will not reverse the decision to sack 13 Vice Chancellors appointed by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, the government said Thursday.
The government had last week announced the sacking of 12 VCs of federal universities as well as that of the National Open Universities of Nigeria (NOUN), Prof. Vincent Tenebe.
The decision, which has drawn protests from different groups and civil societies, has generated controversies within the academic circle.
But Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, at the flag off of the 2015/2016 annual school census in Abuja, reaffirmed the sacking of the VCs by the federal government.
Asked why the VC of NOUN Prof. Tenebe, whose tenure had not expired, was removed, the minister explained that he was removed because of the petitions against him.
He said: “Do you reverse government decision simply because somebody has criticized them? I don’t think there is any decision of government not going down well with everyone in the country.
“The ministry has received communications from some people who feel like this and we are looking at this.
“What I am saying is that they have already written to us. We are looking into their complaints. We will reply them.
Adamu said that all states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) would be included in the school census.
He said that the exercise would aid educational planning, administration and inform decision making by government.
According to the minister, the current trend in the conduct of the annual school census was informed by the provision of the Nigeria Education Information System (NEMIS) policy of 2007 which provided for the collection of data from schools.
He said: “The Education Management Information System (EMIS) process has since been decentralized to the states to enhance efficiency in the collection, collation, management and dissemination of education data in Nigeria so as to ensure the availability of credible, reliable and timely education data.
“The states therefore conduct the ASC exercise while the Federal Ministry of Education through NEMIS co-ordinates and monitors the process.”
He said that the ministry has concluded arrangement to host the NEMIS software on the internet for real –time online data entry and processing.
“This will further ensure uniformity in data reporting so that end-users will have timely reports for decision making and research. I am optimistic that, beginning from this year, Nigeria’s education data, at the basic and secondary school levels, will be cleaner, more accurate, more accessible and up-to-date,” he added.
Earlier in his address, Minister of the FCT, Musa Bello, said that the census was required to keep up – to –date and comprehensive data in schools in terms of infrastructure, numbers of students and personnel.
“The annual school census is very important because it is the foundation upon which all our planning and therefore policy directions are built.
“I learnt that UNICEF has already supported the FCT’s 2016 school census by printing 7,234 census forms to cater for all public and private schools minus the tertiary institutions within the territory,” he said.
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