The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has asked the government at all levels to look into revamping Nigeria’s public schools, the primary, secondary and tertiary institutions before they go extinct.

The union said these are the majority of schools that are available to the bulk of citizens.

The union made the request at its 22nd National Delegates’ Conference of the at the University of Jos.

The conference was to review activities of the union in the past two years where principal officers were elected as well as deliberate on issues affecting the members and the nation at large.

The vice-chancellor of the University of Jos, Professor Tanko Ishaya, in his speech to the delegates, recalled how public schools, especially the primary and secondary schools used to be the envy of the people in which the majority of present leaders were beneficiaries, but the schools have been neglected.

“We are seeing the proliferation of private universities coming up and not enough resources coming into public institutions.

“When I look at this trend, I see that if care is not taken, the public university education situation may actually become similar to what we are having in primary education and secondary education.

“We must have a clear perspective of this trend with respect to thinking about, what is it that we should do in order to ensure that the public institution actually continues to be sustained,” he said.

The ASUU National President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, also lamented the dwindling standard of public schools which he said is gradually taking its toll on the masses who cannot afford the private institutions or to send their wards outside the country for schooling.

“The ruling class have elected to be sending their children and ward either to the foreign institution or to hardly expensive private universities largely owned by the ruling class members, while neglecting the perilous state of the public institutions,” he said.

The delegates’ conference in addition to having the holistic review of policies and reports from principal officers also elected new officers for the union and grant charters to new branches.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says results for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) will be released on Tuesday, May 2, 2023.

JAMB spokesman, Fabian Benjamin, in a statement, also said all candidates, who could not sit the 2023 UTME within their scheduled time owing to no fault of theirs, would be rescheduled to take the examination on Saturday, May 6, 2023.

He said the candidates under these categories are those who were verified at their centres but could not sit the examination, those who could not be biometrically verified, and those with mismatched data.

“The Board would be releasing the results of candidates, who have taken the examination so far on Tuesday, 2nd May, 2023. The Board had delayed the release to ensure that all necessary screening are concluded besides ensuring that the mean and standard deviation are reasonably obtained before releasing these results.

“As candidates check their results on Tuesday, 2nd May, 2023, those who sat the examination but had challenges without being aware of such, would not see their results but would instead see their notification for rescheduled examination.

“Consequently, all candidates who sat the examination are urged to check their results on or before Thursday, 8th May, 2023,” the statement read.

He said out of the 1,586,765 candidates that indicated interest in sitting the examination, only 80,166 are now outstanding.

“On the first day of the 2023 UTME, a number of candidates in some centres could not sit the examination as well as in some centres in subsequent days due to diverse reasons. Though a reasonable number of them have been rescheduled and have taken the examination, some are yet to take their examination.

“As part of the decisions reached at the end of an emergency management meeting held on Sunday, 31st April, 2023, the Board has fixed Saturday, 6th May, 2023, for all categories of candidates who have not sat their examination, as listed below, to take their examination,” the statement added.

Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has ordered the immediate cancellation of the increment of the Abia State University (ABSU) tuition fee.

Invoice given some fresh students which went viral on Monday, April 17, showed that undergraduates in some departments had their fees hitting the roof from N122,000 to N500,000.

Seeing the lofty hike, Ikpeazu who is a Visitor to ABSU, directed the management of the university led by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Maxwell Ogbulu, to immediately cancel the increase in school fees announced on Monday.

Governor Ikpeazu, who gave the directive via a statement issued on Tuesday, April 18, by his Chief Press Secretary, Onyebuchi Ememanka, said the increase which is by over 350 percent is unacceptable to the Abia State Government, especially given the current economic realities in the country.

The governor while acknowledging that it is becoming increasingly challenging for ABSU to play its role under the current fiscal regime, however, said the university management must “understand clearly that it must ensure that children of the poor in the state are given the opportunity to access tertiary education.”

Ikpeazu further directed the university management to engage with all relevant stakeholders in the university community and have robust discussions before contemplating any hike in school fees.

The governor, however, assured the people of Abia State that the state government will continue to support the institution with subventions.

He equally assured all students, parents, and guardians of the university that their interests will consistently be protected by the Abia State Government.