The Federal Government has described the crisis in the University of Abuja as a system failure which has been there for several years.
Disclosing this, weekend, during a presentation of her ministry’s scorecard to the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and other members of the National Working Committee, NWC, Minister of Education, Professor Ruqqayatu Ahmed Alkali, noted that it would be difficult to resolve the problem overnight, adding that it was a problem the present administration inherited.According to her, the ministry’s target was to attain 60 per cent pass by students in public examinations by 2015, even as she said that a four-year strategic plan had already been developed to achieve the target which would ensure passes in relevant subjects like English Language and Mathematics.
The minister also said the problems being faced by medical students would be resolved in the next two weeks, while students in other faculties would be transferred to other institutions where the programmes have been accredited.
She said: “Remember we had a Visitation Panel in the university because we have so many problems there. The university is decaying so we raised a high powered Visitation Panel; the highest level so far, over 40 members with so many committees headed by a renowned SAN.
“They came up with a very good report, detailing all the issues and we have submitted the White Paper on that. I have said this over and over that University of Abuja is a clear system failure. If a system has failed for several years, then it will be difficult to say you will resolve it overnight. We have a problem we inherited.
“NUC is working with COREN and Medical and Dental Council. The students are on the streets because we cannot graduate engineering students from the University of Abuja based on what is on ground. However, we have hope that in two weeks or so, we may have accreditation for Medicine in the university.”
