Campuslife Educative
The decision was approved yesterday by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at its meeting presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, explaining that the moratorium would allow the government to focus on improving standards and ensuring the sustainability of existing institutions.
According to him, the ban covers the establishment of new universities, polytechnics and colleges of education for the next six years.
Alausa said the move became necessary in view of the increasing number of tertiary institutions in the country and the need to strengthen quality assurance mechanisms.
“Today, access is not easy in the country. We have lots of tertiary institutions, both public and private. We need to help these private institutions be sustainable financially,” the minister said.
He noted that despite the large number of universities, access to higher education remains a challenge for many Nigerians, particularly in public institutions.
“Just last year, we had about 2.3 million Nigerians apply to JAMB, but fewer than 228,000 got admission into public universities,” he said.
According to him, recent reforms aimed at making public universities more affordable could further reduce enrolment in private universities, thereby affecting their financial sustainability.
“What will now happen is that there will be fewer people going to private universities. We need to make private educational institutions sustainable as we improve quality in public and private universities,” Alausa added.
The council also approved reforms in medical education to recognise medical fellowships as equivalent to doctoral degrees.
The minister explained that the decision followed the development of amendments to the National Postgraduate Medical College Act in collaboration with the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation.
According to him, the reform is intended to remove long-standing barriers faced by highly specialised medical professionals in academic career progression.
“We need to remove the dichotomy of doctors who spent almost 16 years from medical school, their residency and then doing their fellowship, becoming super-specialised,” he said.
Alausa noted that many doctors spend more years undergoing training than the average PhD candidate but still face institutional requirements that demand a doctoral degree for academic advancement.
“This set of people in the medical sector have spent more years than the average candidate who gets a PhD. So we need to harmonise that,” he said.
He added that once the proposed executive bill is transmitted to the National Assembly and passed into law, medical fellowships would be recognised as equivalent to PhDs for academic and professional purposes.
“After this executive bill has been sent to the National Assembly, the National Postgraduate Medical College will now act as a PhD equivalent,” the minister explained.
Meanwhile, the council also approved the restoration of the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education as a full commission after it was previously downgraded to a department within the ministry.
Alausa said the move aligns with President Tinubu’s plan to significantly reduce illiteracy in Nigeria.
“In view of Mr. President’s expansive agenda to educate over 50 million young adults in the next two to three years and make them digitally literate, we sought the approval of the council to revert it back to a commission,” he said.
He stressed that the revival of the commission is critical in tackling Nigeria’s literacy challenges.
“Today, we have about 56 million Nigerians that are illiterate. We cannot continue to have a high number of citizens that are illiterate,” the minister said.
The commission, originally established in 2013, will intensify adult literacy programmes in rural communities through radio, television, public advocacy and community learning centres.
“The National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education has done a good job in educating people in the rural areas. So we are happy today that this commission is back as a commission,” Alausa added.
