Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union COEASU has asked Nigerians including parents and guardians to prevail on the Federal Government to respond to the union's demands and prevent a fresh nationwide strike in the public Colleges of Education that will further worsen situation in the tertiary education system in the country
Secretary of the South West zone of COEASU who doubles as Chairman of the union at the Federal College of Education, Osiele Abeokuta, Dr.(Mrs) Oluwakemi Oni on a radio programme monitored by Edu-Biznews.com on Tuesday in the Ogun State Capital made the call, saying lecturers in the public Colleges of Education will have no choice than to join their counterpart in Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU who on Monday extended its one-month nationwide strike in public universities by two months, accusing government of failing to attend its various demands including the 2009 Memoranda of Action signed with the union
She said that the union would decide the next line of action at its National Executive Council meeting later this month, since the Federal Government had failed to respond to COEASU demands at the last meeting held in Zaria, Kaduna State on 19th of February, 2022
The COEASU South West scribe explained that the Federal Government had continued to turn deaf ears to the union's demands including implementation'of new minimum wage for tertiary Institutions, release of revitalization fund for Colleges of Education, payment of migration arears since 2010 as well as promotion arrears and lifting of embargo on recruitment of academic staff amongst others
"We are also demanding for renegotiation of salary structure since 2009 nothing had been done to review salary structure to motivate academic staff and no recruitment of academic staff to replace those who retired from the service since 2016",she revealed
She also expressed the displeasure of the union just like ASUU over the implementation of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System IPPIS, alleging irregularities in the usage of the payment platform by the Federal Government
COEASU according to her, is calling for release of revitalization fund for proper funding of public Colleges of Education, in terms of provision of necessary facilities for equipping of laboratories for proper practical classes in chemistry, physics , biology, home economics , agricultural Courses
She accused of the Minister of Education for claiming that government had not released revitalization fund to the colleges, lamenting that nothing had been released by government so far after several meetings and dialogue with relevant agencies
Oni berated government for what she described as Insensitivity of government to the plight of union to ensure conducive environment for both academic staff and students who deserved conducive learning environment for practical classes which the revitalization fund would have done, if released by government to provide the required funding for public Colleges of Education in Nigeria
She listed other demands to include introduction of dua -mode of education which would enable students studying for Nigeria Certificate In Education NCE to immediately enroll for their Bachelor of Education B'Ed Degree in the same colleges while government should also provide stipends for the students during their Teaching Practice programme
Oni however asked government to stop Politicising education, by putting an end to its indiscriminate approval of license for establishment of more tertiary Institutions without proper funding of the existing ones
No comments:
Post a Comment