Ban ASUU now, says Prof Gumel. Professor Abba Gumel is an award winning and renowned Professor of Computational Mathematics who teaches at the University of Manitoba. He expresses his displeasure at the ongoing ASUU-FG face-off. The Canada-based professor,among other things, calls for a general restructuring of the Nigerian university system and favours a banon the ASUU. Excerpts: Funding universities Universities should simply raise the funds they need to hire (and retain) quality academics, then there will be no need for any strike.The current model of varsities relying almost exclusively on what they get from the Federal Government is terribly flawed and not sustainable. This does nothappen in serious nations.Harvard’s endowment asof last year was about $30billion - which is almostthe size of Nigeria’s annual budget.The hegemony of the national union of lecturersThe culture of nation-wide university strike must beabolished too. The ASUU should be banned.Academics should havelocal unions - to address local matters – as it is done in developed nations; this is probably why it is unheard of indeveloped nations to have nationwide closure of universities. Education is aserious business. Serious academics and nations do not remotely consider the possibility of nationwide closure of the highest centres of learning. In the West, academics in aparticular campus can goon a strike if they fail tor each agreement with the university management,but this is a local issue which is often resolved within a few days or weeks, through an independent arbitration process; and never translates into a nationwide strike. Let Buhari or any other serious and competent Nigerian be President, andI shall offer myself free to run education in the country and folks will see real, courageous, bold,fearless and innovative yet practicable reform. Restructuring the university systemThe entire model for university education hasto change. Campuses must be autonomous although the Federal and state governments have to continue to make some contributions to them.Universities must raise the funds they need viatuition fees, researchgrants, endowments, etc.to run their programs effectively.Each campus should have its local union e.g., Usman Danfodio University Faculty Association, whose only role is to, first and foremost, help ensur equality academic standards on campus that is, ensure that the academics are given the incentives, teaching and learning materials they need and so forth. Further,they must promote the interest of their member son issues to do with promotion, human rights,incentives, etc. In cases of disputes between the Faculty Association andthe university management, anindependent arbitrator (often a highly placed member of the local community) is appointed and the ruling of the arbitrator is binding by law. This is what happensin serious nations and serious universities; that’swhy you never heard of shutting down campuses in any developed nation).Public education, likepublic health, is a serious business. It is animmensely critical aspectof any modern nation. Noserious nation allows anation-wide strike in such immensely critical sectors.Of course, ours is not a serious nation and that’s why such strikes are essentially the norm andnot the exception. Even inAfrica, we are probably theonly nation that condones such nonsense. The folksat ASUU are advocating forsome stuff: teaching/learning resources and possibly some additional remunerations. We shouldn’t have been inthis situation in the first place if those managing universities know their duties, and the governments federal, state and local make the right investment in education ina sustained basis.Soldiers started it We all know the khaki boys basically killed education in Nigeria in the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. But the ASUU folk shave not justified many ofthe incentives they have received. Obasanjo gave them a massive -yet laudable - salary increases,and their quality and the quality of what they produced has remain eddecidedly low in my view.We simply do not have aculture of academic excellence in any of ourpublic campuses.Teacher-student relationship One of the first things I tell my new graduate students is that I know athing or two, and will share with them what Iknow, but when all is said and done, I expect them to be a gazillion times better than me and if not,“heads will roll”. It’s only a teacher who doesn’t know what he’s doing that blocks the progress of his students – the way Nigerian lecturers do.Academic dishonestyThe same ASUU folks are running around moonlighting .......... -WEEKLY TRUS
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 08:52:01 +0000
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