PORT HARCOURT—AS Rivers State House of Assembly, RVHA, commits the State 2013 Appropriation Bill to Committees’ appraisals, the member representing Obia/Akpor II, Michael Chinda, has urged the state government to guard against neglect of old educational infrastructure.

December comes with merry-making and shopping for Christmas and New Year. But parents do these with tuition fees and school materials in mind, because immediately after the fun time, schools resume. Across the country many resumed on January 6 and others will resume on January 14.

Professor Chiedu Felix Mafiana is the Executive Director, Quality Assurance, National Universities Commission NUC. This arm was created in 2005 following the observed need to restructure and strengthen the capacity of the Commission to monitor and ensure the quality of academic programmes in the Nigerian University System (NUS). The Professor of Parasitology, who is also the President and Chair of the Executive Board, African Quality Assurance Network (AfriQan), in this interview spoke on sundry issues bordering on the university system and the way forward. Excerpts:

Irked by the spawning certificates that often fail the test of time in terms of skills and qualitative knowledge, the Senate Committee on education has charged the federal government on the need to establish more technical and technological institutions of learning across the nation.

Chairman, Senate Committee of Federal Capital Territory, Senator Smart Adeyemi, has said government schools can still regain its past glory if the Federal Government can improve funding and infrastructures to the schools.