Abuja – The National Universities Commission (NUC) has expressed grave concern over the critical shortage of lecturers in 201 universities in Nigeria.
The NUC in its latest bulleting released in Abuja on Monday stated that there are just 100,000 academic staff members in all the universities attending to 2.1 million students.
“The entire system has about 2.1 million students and staff strength of about 170,000 non-teaching and 100,000 academic staff,” it stated.
Mr Chris Maiyaki, Deputy Secretary , Administration at NUC who was quoted in the bulletin as speaking on the development said the situation portends danger for the future of university education in Nigeria.
To address the situation, he called on the Federal Government to exempt the university system from embargo it placed on fresh employment.
” There is a need for universities to be isolated from the Federal Government’s circular on embargo on new employment because of the peculiarity and distinctive nature of the universities in order for them to keep up the pace in attaining comparable standards with their counterparts globally,” he said.
According to Maiyaki, Maiyaki, the commission is currently supervising over 200 universities, comprising of 48, 54 and 99 federal, state and private universities respectively.
He identified increasing running cost, meagre budgetary allocations and isue of power shortages as some of the problems facing the system.
” We also have incessant interference in the NUC’s functions by some professional bodies and associations, which have continued to issue needless instructions to universities.
“Other challenges in the Nigerian university system include the issue of digital response to COVID-19 lockdown, ” he said.
Maiyaki described 2020 as an unusual year for everyone due to the global outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, saying that the universities in Nigeria were forced to adopt E-learning as a way out. (vitalnews)
