NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIAN STUDENTS (NANS) ZONE D (SOUTH WEST) WAR AGAINST UNDERFUNDING AND CRISES IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR Government must honour Agreements with all staff unions Greatest Nigerian People! There is urgent need for us to act now to save Nigeria’s public education sector from total collapse from the claws of the capitalist ruling elites! It will interest you to know that between 2000 and 2011, the Nigeria government earned N48.48 trillions from the sale of oil alone against 3.10trillion earned between 1979 and 1999, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in 2012 financial year alone accrued a sum of N5.12trillion as revenue generated from tax paid by the masses. With this tremendous upswing in the revenue at the disposal of the Nigerian government, one would have expected such to translate toa commensurate improvement in the quality and quantity of Nigeria’s public education as well as other social services. FG is using as much as N2.5 trillion to bail out private banks. In a recent report, Nigerian politicians are the highest paid in the world with a basic salary of 30.6million aside allowances. About 17,474 political office holders earn as much as N1.3 trillion as salaries, allowances and perks of office yearly. Despite the enormous resources and wealth, Nigerian students still find it difficult to access public education. The onslaught against education is part of the imperialist proposition that Nigerians don’t need university education. Unfortunately, given the present state of Nigeria’s public education, it is very clear that it is now more than enmeshed in threatening crisis largely characterized by poor funding, privatizations and commercialization of the education sector. As amatter of fact, the percentage budgetary allocation to education has fallen from 12.22% in 1985 to 8.5% in 2013 budget. Comparing the federal government’s 8.5% budgetary allocation to education against UNESCO recommendation of 26% by all Africa countries, it is very clear that Nigeria government is not interested in funding education and by so doing invites private contractors to take over public education even when workers who are our parents are not paid 18,000 minimum wage. It is pertinent that countries with smaller GDP have their percentage budgetary allocations to education as follows Ghana 31%, Cote d’ Ivoire 20%, Kenya 23%, Morocco 17.7%, Botswana 19%, Swaziland 24.6%, Lesotho 17%, Burkina Faso 16%, Uganda 27%,and Tunisia 17%. As a result of government’s poor funding and irresponsibility, public education from primary to tertiary levels is bedeviled with lack of adequate facilities for proper teaching, learning and research. Hostel facilities in few schools, where they exist, are dilapidated and insufficient. Over 10million students are out of school while a huge of 45million youths are unemployed. No Nigeria University is ranked among the best 3000 in the world or among the first 30 in Africa. Only this year alone, about 1.7million candidates registered for UTME and from the available spaces in all universities, polytechnics, colleges of education less than 29% of them will be admitted thus leaving over 1.2million candidates to compete with the next generation of secondary school students in the next UTME. Perhaps, the crisis is more exemplified by the horrendous situation in Lagos State University (LASU) where many candidates offered admission could not enroll and many matriculated students have been forced to drop out from the school due to an astronomical increment in fee. LASU students now pay a fee that ranges between N280, 000 and N345, 750. We demand immediate reversal of the outrageous fees in LASU and other schools like Ekiti State University, Osun State University, OlabisiOnabanjo University, Tai Solarin University of Education, etc. We thereby call on students and the general youths to rise up for a JOINT STRUGGLE against poor funding of education and save it from the sharp claws of imperialists and privatization. We call for a jointly coordinated campaign of all education workers ‘ unions across nation in all levels of public education to rise up for a mass protest in pressing home our demands for improvement in education funding and drastic cuts in salaries of political officers. OUR DEMANDS: 1. Declaration of State of Emergency in Nigerian Education Sector 2. Proper Funding of Compulsory, Free and Quality Education at all levels- from primary to tertiary level and cancellation of fees. 3. Resolution of all Crises in Education Sector i.e. Honouring all Agreements signed with all the staff unions 4. Restoration of all Proscribed Students’ Unions i.e. OAU; UNILAG; EKSU; EACOED, Oyo; MOCPED, Lagos; TASCE, Ogun; COE, Ikere-Ekiti; ACE, Ondo; The Polytechnic Ibadan… and others across the country. 5. Reinstatement of all Expelled/ Suspended Students’ Leaders And Activists 6. Rejection of any form of Harassment, Intimidation or Humiliation of Nigerian Students by Government, University Management or Staff 7. Establishment of Democratic Management System in all Educational Institutions to include Elected Representatives of Staff (Academic and Non-academic), Elected Representatives of Students and Parents. 8. Conversion of Higher National Diploma (HND) to Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech) 9. Amendment of TETFUND Act to include all Monotechnics across the country in the scheme 10. Proper Payment of SIWESS Allowances for all Universities, Polytechnics, Monotechnics, and Colleges of Education Vocational and Technical Students 11. Payment of Teaching Practice Allowances for Students Studying Education courses 12. No to Police Attacks and Killing of Students! Release the detained UNIUYO students 13. Improvement in the Pay and Conditions of Service of all Teaching and Non-teaching Staff in the Education Sector 14. Outright Rejection of SuswamCommittee, instead we demand a Democratic Composition of Elected Stakeholders- that is, Students, Staff Unions (Academic and Non-academic) and parents 15. Removal of Prof. Wale Omole as Pro- Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of LadokeAkintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso If we fight we might win, if we don’t fight we have lost already Issued by: NANS Zone D Secretariat, EACOED, Oyo, Oyo-State, Nigeria August 2013
Posted on: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 17:22:16 +0000
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