The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), have threatened to embark on an indefinite strike on Wednesday 25th February, if government fails to meet their demands.
President of the Union, Mr Chibuzor Asomugha told journalists during a press briefing in Abuja that government has not implemented any of their demands since the suspension of the last strike embarked upon by the Union in July last year.
ASUP is aggrieved over the dichotomy that exists in the way Polytechnic and University graduates are treated in the labour market, and the poor attention given to the polytechnics.
They are also kicking against government’s non-implementation of an agreed salary structure since 2009.
Relying on the success of the Ministry of Education since assumption of office three months ago as substantive Minister of Education and resolution strikes by workers' unions within the nation's education sector, the Minister, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau has said the era of such development in the industry is over.
He said his mandate as minister has been fulfilled having resolved succeeded in ending the strike in July, saying that the resolution of the then prolonged ASUU,ASUP and COEASU strike less than 24 hours on assumption of office was a clear pointer to his commitment to fulfill that mandate.
Addressing newsmen in Lagos during an Impact Assessment Tour of Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria, he explained that the tour became necessary as parts of efforts to gain first hand information on the challenges facing federal government owned institutions, saying working with pictures and documents in modern day Nigeria could be deceptive.
He added that parts of the measure to nip strikes in the bud was his commitment to ensure the dignity of teaching service in Nigeria through adequate welfare packages, training and retraining of teachers at all levels.
He said government would continue to give priority attention to provision of conducive teaching and learning environment, among others in line with the transformation agenda of the federal government and President Goodluck Jonathan.
The Minister, who was in Lagos on the second leg of his assessment tour of institution, called on the Akoka main campus of the University of Lagos, inspected series of projects including the ongoing Jubilee Arcade located beside the waterfront.
He also revealed that the major challenges facing the education system has been the non-implementation of the several white paper proposals submitted to successive government administrations by many visitation panels to many of the institutions.
The University of Lagos Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Rahaman Bello, said the university has been at the mercy of the internally-generated revenues, support from philanthropists and contributions from the alumni members, saying out of about N400 million needed for monthly overhead cost, the university receives only N11.3 million. "In fact, the 2015 budget has further reduced it to about N10 million."
At the Federal College of Education, Technical, Akoka, the Minister pledged to resolve the perennial land tussle between the college and UNILAG, saying it was a family affair that would be addressed in due course.
At the college, Shekarau commissioned two major projects of the link bridge to the disputed land funded by the Africa Development Bank, and the TETfund three-storey lecture theatre. He commended the college management for what he described as the decorum and discipline associated with education schools.
"As a teacher who is proud of this job, I appreciate the system here and I hope others can cultivate this," Shekarau said.
Also at the Yaba College of Technology, where the Chairman of the institution's Governing Council, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, commended the Minister for restoring hope the education system especially with his prompt resolution of the ASUP/COEASU strike..
No comments:
Post a Comment