Back to strike: ASUP, COEASU strikes ground education sector on january 16, 2014 at 12:55 am in education By AMAKA ABAYOMI & LAJU ARENYEKA The education sector has once again reached a near collapse with the recent strikes embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU. This is barely a month after the 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 the education sector in recent times. When ASUP suspended its 81- day-old strike in July 2013, the Federal Government failed in its promise to tackle relevant issues within the one-month time frame given by the union. In an interview with Vanguard Learning, the ASUP Chairman, Mr. Chibuzor Asomugha said: “Principally in 2009, we entered an agreement with the government which was supposed to be renegotiated in 2012. *Wike Between 2009 and 2012, nothing was done about that agreement. The reason why we called off the 81-day- old strike in 2013 was because the Joint Committee on education of the Senate and the House of Representatives intervened. There were 13 issues in the 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, and we saw reason with them that some issues, such as the disparity between HND and BSc would require legislative actions and longer procedures, so we believed in the integrity of our leaders and suspended the strike in the hopes that these issues would at least be resolved for the time being. These four issues include: release of the White paper on Visitation to Federal Polytechnics, the completion of the constitution of the governing councils for federal polytechnics, the migration of the lower cadre on CONTISS 15 salary scale, and the commencement of the Needs Assessment of Nigerian polytechnics.” The ASUP boss said that the strike will not be called off until these four issues have been resolved in their totality. He said: “The 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 wasn’t until we resumed the strike recently that the government finally completed the constitution of governing councils and set up a NEEDS Assessment Committee. Even then, the 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 Government’s refusal to honour an agreement made with the union in 2010. After the warning strike, the Federal Government did not heed the union’s call, hence the ongoing strike. In a press statement released to Vanguard Learning, the Vice- President of the union, Mr. Smark Olugbeko gave some insight into some of the issues earmarked in the 2010 agreement. He said: “The first issue is the non- implementation of Peculiar Academic Allowance. Government owes lecturers in the colleges N5.6 billion. Since the agreement was signed in 2010, Government has refused to make provision for the allowance in the budget. Government directed Governing Council of Colleges to pay the allowance in the first year saying that it would make provision for it in the 2011 budget, up till date, government has refused to fulfill this promise. Another issue is the Group Life Insurance. Death benefits to deceased members remain outstanding since 2001. This was occasioned by the centralisation of the scheme as against the provision of the Act which stipulates that individual institutions should implement the scheme. There is also the issue of the non- implementation of 65 years retirement age; the Kaduna and Osun state governments have remained adamant in implementing the 65 years retirement age in their respective colleges of education.” Continuing, Olugbeko opined that “Infrastructure development is the only aspect the government has taken serious steps to address by setting up Needs Assessment Committee for public colleges of education. It is, however, expedient to urge government to ensure that the outcome of the findings must be given the necessary action.” Other festering issues include the migration of the lower cadre to the Compcass 15, imposition of integrated IPPIS, inadequate finding of the teaching practice, non- accreditation of NCE programmes, non-release of Whitepaper on Visitation Panel Reports 2011, non- implementation of CONPCASS in some states, and 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.” Olugbeko added: “As a union which deploys measures not antithetical to the good of the system specifically and the country at large in her agitations and engagement with government, it is our candid opinion that the union’s concerns, such as the ones raised herein, need to get some commitment from government. This could be ensured through the instrumentality of the processes that could realistically address the issues and indeed other pertinent ones for which attention had been sought in times past.” Also lending his voice, the Senate President, National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS), Adeyemi Lukman said: “We have made consultations and consolidations with ASUP. Our stand is that the Federal Government must meet the demands of ASUP, the same way they met the demands of ASUU. The fact that they handled ASUU’s issues without giving any thought to the polytechnics is an evidence of the disparity that we are fighting against. We the students understand that we are the ones that will give publicity to our plight. That is why this week, students of polytechnics and colleges of education are resuming classes at the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja. We cannot keep staying at home and letting our leaders toy with our destinies.” Meanwhile, the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) has said that it fully supports the ongoing strikes by ASUP and COEASU. In a press statement signed by its National Coordinator, Mr. Hassan Soweto, the ERC opined that “these strikes show the failure of the Federal Government to resolve the lingering problems in the education sector.” The Statement read: “We call on the Federal Government to immediately meet ASUP and COEASU’s demands so that polytechnic students and their counterparts in the colleges of education can resume their academic activities which have been disrupted for months now. The demands of ASUP and COEASU are to improve the education sector most especially the polytechnic and college of education sub-sectors that have suffered neglect by the government. We note that the Federal Government has been largely indifferent to the agitations of ASUP over the past few months which has contributed to the prolongation of the strike. It is not coincidental that same indifferent and disdainful attitude is being applied by the Federal Government to the COEASU strike which started much later. President Jonathan’s anti-poor capitalist government has nothing but contempt for public education most especially the polytechnic and college of education subsectors. The ERC also called on ASUP and COEASU to jointly declare a day of mass protests. “The ERC is confident that if ASUP and COEASU jointly name a day of protests and embark on serious mobilisation towards it, the response from polytechnics and colleges of education lecturers, home-weary students and concerned members of the public would be solid. Therefore, we call on ASUP to review its strategy and begin to revitalise this strike by calling mass protests and demonstrations of polytechnic lecturers and students. The ERC believes that if the demands of the ASUP and COEASU are met, it will lead to improvement in the education sector. However, it will require the democratic running of the entire education sector as well as ending of the system of capitalism and its replacement by a democratic socialist system for real and complete turnaround to be witnessed in the education sector as well as the polytechnic and college of education subsectors.”
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 00:49:18 +0000
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