The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, says the new retirement age of 70 years for teachers and the new  years of service of  40 years will take effect from January 1.

Adamu made this known at the 2020 Annual Ministerial briefing in Abuja on Thursday.

He, however, said that there would not be a uniform take-off date for all the other policies approved by President Muhammadu Buhari at the 2020 World Teachers Day.

He said that effective dates for other policies would be announced subsequently after the submission of the report of the National Coordinating Committee.

Prior to the approval of the new retirement age and years of service by the president, the retirement age of teachers in the country was 60 years or 35 years in service.

The gesture was as a form of reward for teachers’ dedication to duty and also to attract more people to the profession.

Also, Adamu said the ministry had constituted a National Working Committee to work out modalities to ensure continuous learning of students across all institutions in the face of  COVID-19 pandemic and prolonged ASUU’s strike.

He explained that the committee would work in collaboration with the United Nations Children Education Fund to ensure the continuous learning of students.

The minister added that a grant had been obtained from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) to build a National Education Cloud to warehouse educational resource materials for teachers and learners at all levels of education in the country.

“Upon the inauguration of this facility, hopefully in the next six months, time and space will no longer be a hindrance to learning.

“All universities must prepare their workforce to operate under this environment,” he said.

On the government’s determination to increase access to tertiary education, he said the ministry had continued to allocate resources for scholarship awards to Nigerians both home and abroad.

“I must commend our donor partners for keeping faith with their promises in this regard.

“Especially, Morocco, the Russian Federation, Hungary, China, some Commonwealth countries, Romania and Egypt who have awarded a number of scholarships to Nigerian students to study in their countries.

“For 2020, a breakdown of the returns do fare are as follows: Morocco-100slots, Russia-97 slots, Hungary-50 slots, China-47 slots Romania 10 slots and Egypt -5 slots.

“If there are further returns from donor nations in the coming weeks, candidates will be notified accordingly,” he said.

Adamu also said that two federal polytechnics would be established in Borno and Benue in the 2021 fiscal year, adding that the two institutions would take off in October.