Plateau Polytechnic defies ASUP, orders resumption of lectures Andrew Ajijah Published: November 4,2013 The lecturers were asked to resume lectures on Monday. The Plateau State Polytechnic has asked its lecturers and students to resume classes, despite the ongoing nationwide strike by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP. The school’s call for resumption was announced on Plateau Radio and Television PRTV and signed by the Polytechnic’s Rector, Dauda Girman. However, the chairman of the school’s chapter of ASUP, Victor Dawurang, in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES, denied that strike had been suspended. However, a senior lecturer at the polytechnic, who pleaded anonymity as he was speaking unofficially, confirmed that the management of the institution, at the weekend, had directed them to resume lectures on Monday. The lecturer said that the school’s participation in the national strike did not yield any positive results. “As a lecturer in this institution, I have never seen where the union benefited from an industrial action called by our mother union, ASUP. I believe this could have formed the decision of management in prevailing on our local union to suspend the strike in our institution,” he said. He added that as a civil servant, he had no choice but to obey his employers and would lecture during his assigned periods. At the school’s campus on Monday, students were seen in lecture halls, preparing for classes. However, no class had commenced as at the time of PREMIUM TIMES’ visit. Some final year students, who, before the strike, were about to sit for their last examinations prior to graduation, told PREMIUM TIMES that they were pleased with the decision of the school authorities. When contacted, ASUP’s National Publicity Secretary, Clement Chirman, said the polytechnic was not authorised to call off the strike. “We have not given such directive for the strike to be suspended at any level,” he said. The union had embarked on a strike to protest the non fulfillment of an agreement it had with the Federal Government, which included the removal of the dichotomy between HND/University graduates in placement and career progression; constitution of an effective and functional governing council for polytechnics; and a white paper on visitation panels to polytechnics.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 08:21:55 +0000
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