The Senate on Wednesday passed the bill to amend the retirement age of the academic staff of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in the country.
In response to agitations by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, the retirement age for professors was reviewed from 65 to 70 years.
The bill states that, “The compulsory retiring age of academic staff of tertiary institutions shall be 65 years, while the retiring age of academics in the professorial cadre in the universities shall be 70 years.
“The law requiring a person to retire from the public service after serving 35 years shall not apply to academic staff of tertiary institutions.”
The Senate also approved the payment of pensions to a retiring professor at a rate equivalent to his or her last monthly salary while the Registrar, Librarian and Bursar of any tertiary institution would hold office for a period of five years, and an extension of one year if necessary.
It however rejected the proposal to have professors paid their full salaries just like retired military officers. But it approved that they be paid their annual basic salaries as pensions.
After the third reading of the bill, President of the Senate, David Mark, said the striking university teachers would do the nation, parents, present and future generation proud if they called off the strike.
He said, “There is a need for us to get ASUU back so that our children can go back to school. This bill is quite important and I hope with the passage of the bill, ASUU members will go back to their universities.
“There are serious constitutional issues to be addressed and we have to pursue them, and unless we do that, we may be confronted with problems in the future and that is why we have to take cognizance of Section 318 of the 1999 Constitution.”
Although the bill was considered in the last Senate, it was not passed because of certain misgivings expressed by the stakeholders.
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