What lead 2 D ASUP & COEASU strike; d education sector has once again reached a near collapse with d recent strikes embarked upon by d Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, & d Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU. This is barely a month after d Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, called off its nearly six-month old strike. Though severe, these strikes come as no surprise to anyone who has closely followed d education sector in recent times. When ASUP suspended its 81-day-old strike in July 2013, d Federal Government failed in its promise to tackle relevant issues within d one-month time frame given by d union. In an interview with Vanguard Learning, the ASUP Chairman, Mr. Chibuzor Asomugha said: Principally in 2009, we entered an agreement with d government which was supposed to be renegotiated in 2012. Between 2009 and 2012, nothing was done about that agreement. D reason why we called off d 81-day- old strike in 2013 was because d Joint Committee on education of d Senate & d House of Representatives intervened. There were 13 issues in d earlier agreement we signed in 2009 but government decided to pick out four which it said it could handle within a short time frame. They argued, & we saw reason with them that some issues, such as d disparity between HND & BSc would require legislative actions & longer procedures, so we believed in d integrity of our leaders & suspended the strike in d hopes that these issues would at least be resolved for d time being. These four issues include: release of d White paper on Visitation to Federal Polytechnics, d completion of d constitution of d governing councils for federal polytechnics, d migration of d lower cadre on CONTISS 15 salary scale, & d commencement of d Needs Assessment of Nigerian polytechnics. d ASUP boss said that d strike will not be called off until these four issues have been resolved in their totality. He said: d Government said that they would settle these issues within two weeks, but when our National Executive Council met, we decided to give them one month. We suspended the strike, yet absolutely nothing was done. It wasnt until we resumed d strike recently that d government finally completed d constitution of governing councils & set up a NEEDS Assessment Committee. Even then, d committee is working at a very slow pace. COEASU also embarked on a seven-day warning strike in September 2013 as a result of Federal Governments refusal to honour an agreement made with d union in 2010. After d warning strike, d Federal Government did not heed d unions call, hence d ongoing strike. In a press statement released to Vanguard Learning, d Vice- President of d union, Mr. Smark Olugbeko gave some insight into some of d issues earmarked in the 2010 agreement. He said: d first issue is the non- implementation of Peculiar Academic Allowance. Government owes lecturers in d colleges N5.6 billion. Since d agreement was signed in 2010, Government has refused to make provision for d allowance in d budget. Government directed Governing Council of Colleges to pay d allowance in d first year saying that it would make provision for it in d 2011 budget, up till date, government has refused 2 fulfill this promise. Another issue is d Group Life Insurance. Death benefits to deceased members remain outstanding since 2001. This was occasioned by d centralisation of d scheme as against d provision of d Act which stipulates that individual institutions should implement d scheme. There is also d issue of d non- implementation of 65 years retirement age; d Kaduna & Osun state governments av remained adamant in implementing d 65 years retirement age in their respective colleges of education. Continuing, Olugbeko opined dat Infrastructure development is d only aspect d government has taken serious steps 2 address by setting up Needs Assessment Committee 4 public colleges of education. It is, however, expedient 2 urge government to ensure that d outcome of d findings must be given d necessary action. Other festering issues include d migration of d lower cadre to d Compcass 15, imposition of integrated IPPIS, inadequate finding of d teaching practice, non-accreditation of NCE programmes, non-release of Whitepaper on Visitation Panel Reports 2011, non-implementation of CONPCASS in some states, & non-institution of dual mode which allows colleges of education the autonomy to award degrees in core education courses to run concurrently with the NCE programmes. **TO BE CONTINUE**
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 08:11:05 +0000
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