Striking College of Education lecturers protest in Lagos The lecturers have been on strike since December, 2013. Lecturers under the auspices of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka Chapter, on Wednesday staged a protest in Lagos. The lecturers, numbering about 50, went round the campus, chanting solidarity songs. They also displayed placards with inscriptions such as “COEASU says no to poor funding of the education sector’’, “Release White Paper on Visitation Panel’’ and “COEASU says no to IPPIS’’. Olayanju Taiwo, the Chairman, COEASU FCE (T), Akoka Chapter, said that the protest was staged to draw more attention to their demands. Mr. Taiwo said that the protest was holding simultaneously in all the Colleges of Education nationwide, as directed by the National Officers Council of COEASU. According to him, the Federal Government has not made any significant response to the demands of the union since they began their strike on Dec.18, 2013. Mr. Taiwo urged the government to respond positively and brace up to fund the colleges adequately, to redeem their standard. “By UNESCO standard, budgetary allocation for education should not be less than 26 per cent but unfortunately, it is not up to 10 per cent in Nigeria,” the chairman said. He said that the union would continue with the strike until the Federal Government met its demands. “COEASU says no to skeletal implementation of its demands and we will not back out from the struggle until our demands are fully implemented,” he said. Mr. Taiwo urged the government to be sensitive and implement the demands of the union. --CULLED FROM PREMIUM TIMES
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 13:27:27 +0000