SENATOR ADVOCATES ONE VARSITY PER STATE

By NBF News

The Chairman Senate Committee on Education, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu (PDP, Kebbi Central) has called on the Federal Government to establish a university in each of the states that have no federal university.

Speaking to Daily Trust yesterday, Bagudu said in order to ensure that all candidates seeking for higher education get admission placements, 'government should go beyond the one university per zone to ensure that each state of the federation has at least one federal university.'

On the issue of location for the six universities, Bagudu said government should choose areas that are farther from the present federal universities in their zones.

He called on government to site the proposed university for the North-West zone in Birnin Kebbi saying, 'It should either be in Kebbi or Katsina so that it will be central to the four states in the zone that are without a federal university.'

Bagudu said all states in some zones already have federal presence in terms of location of universities saying, 'The policy of one university per zone will improve access to higher education which is needed to attain the vision 2020.'

On scrapping of Colleges of Education, Bagudu said the colleges will not be scrapped but would be upgraded to degree awarding institutions because 'We want anyone that has good SSCE results that wants to be a teacher to feel confident that they are also going to study for their degrees so that they don't face discrimination.'

Bagudu said government must work towards improving funding for the education sector saying 'We are pushing for the funding to be raised up to 26 percent of the budget in the 2011 fiscal year.'