On Tuesday, vice chancellors, rectors, provosts and registrars of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education met with the Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Dibu Ojerinde, in Abuja, to determine the cut-off marks for the 2014 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) written in April/May.
The meeting signified the start of the admission process for the 2014/2015 academic session. However, polytechnics are in a dilemma. The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has been on strike for the past 11 months.
The strike which began in April 2013, was suspended in July, and resumed on October 4, 2013. It is still on.
Many polytechnics have lost a session. Mr Adeyemi Adejolu, Deputy Registrar, Information and Protocol at the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State, said a set of National Diploma (ND) I students admitted for the 2013/2014 session had been unable to resume because of the strike.
“It has affected normal academic activities. Students admitted for the 2013/2014 session cannot resume. At the time ASUP went on break last July, we rounded up the session and screened new students for admission. But the students admitted have not been able to resume for lectures. We can say we have lost a year. The dilemma we are in right now is that JAMB stakeholders’ committee is meeting today (Tuesday) in Abuja to fix national cutoff. That means we will have another set waiting to come in,” he said.
Deputy Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State, Dr Don Muo, has expressed similar concerns. Urging ASUP to call off the strike, he said the lengthy impasse has stagnated students’ progress and denied them lectures for the required length of time.
Polytechnic students are also lamenting the strike. Emeka Onwudinjo, National Diploma II student of Mass Communication at the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, said the long stay at home was unexpected and has led to some students getting into trouble.
“The strike has had a terrible effect on students. Students have been involving themselves in criminal acts. A few days ago, one was caught involved in kidnapping. He was paraded in Awka. There is a popular saying that an ideal mind is the devil’s workshop. Assuming the Federal Government negotiated with ASUP and they call off the strike, I don’t think the boy would have found himself in this situation. We did not expect that the strike would be this long,” he said.
Suliat Abodunrin, a National Diploma (ND) I student of the Federal Polytechnic Offa (FEDPOFFA), told The Nation that but for the four-month Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) that she is currently undergoing, she would have been at home like most of her peers. By now, she said she should have completed her ND programme, like many of her peers in state-owned polytechnics that did not join the strike, but she has been slowed down by the industrial action.
“I believe they have wasted our time. They (lecturers) should reach a compromise with the government so we can return to school. We don’t want to seem ungrateful because some of their demands will benefit us but they should also think of us,” she said.
But the ASUP leaders argue that they are indeed thinking of the students in some of their demands. The union, which has tabled 13 demands before the Federal Government, is unsatisfied with the way the negotiations have been handled.
At a congress at the Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) last Thursday, the National ASUP President, Dr Chibuzor Asomugha, said the strike would continue until the government addressed the issues.
He said: “As a union, we are constrained to say that unless urgent steps are taken by President Goodluck Jonathan to address the decadent conditions of Nigeria’s polytechnics today, the nation shall surely be headed for jeopardy. We shall remain resolute and continue with the strike until all the issues put before Government by our union are satisfactorily addressed.”
The 13 demands of the union include the following: HND/BSc dichotomy; non release of the White Paper on the Visitations to Federal Polytechnics; the refusal of government to fund the implementation of CONTISS 15 migration for the Lower cadres and its arrears as from 2009; non-establishment of a National Polytechnics Commission (NPC) and the continued recognition of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) as a regulatory body for Polytechnics; and the snail pace of the review of the Polytechnic Act by the National Assembly.
Others are: Under funding of the Polytechnic sub-sector and the discrimination in disbursements of TETfund grants; non re-negotiation of the FGN/ASUP agreement; implementation of Integrated Personnel Payment System (IPPIS) in polytechnics only; poor state of most state owned polytechnics; appointment of unqualified persons as Rectors and Provosts of Polytechnics, Monotechnics and Colleges of Technologies by some state governments; non implementation of the approved salary package (CONPCASS) and 65-year retirement age for their Polytechnics, Monotechnics and College of Technologies; and the Needs Assessment of polytechnics.
In an interview, Asomugha said the Federal Government has not demonstrated the readiness to end the strike. He complained that the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, rather than resolving the issues, has been complicating matters by contracting himself.
He said: “We are particularly worried about the disposition and posture of the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, who appears not to have grasped the intricacies of the workings of tertiary education. By his utterances and actions, The Minister has tended to frustrate the resolution process contradicting himself on most pronouncements concerning reasons for the strike.
“Perplexingly, when the House of Representatives Committee on education convened a stake holders meeting aimed at resolving the strike, the Hon Minister of Education had informed the stakeholders that the CONTISS 15 Migration had been queried by the Salaries Income & Wages Commission and an Inter-Ministerial Committee set up by Government to look into the matter. The Hon minister promised the inclusion of the unions in the Committee which was to submit its report in one week. Surprising the union has not been invited for any of that committee’s meetings.
“Again when the Senate Committee on Education called for a stakeholders’ meeting on the matter on 24th June, 2014, neither the Minister nor any of the other government agencies honoured the Senate’s invitation. The same Hon Supervising Minister had gone ahead to make arbitrarily appointment of university professors as rectors of polytechnics in wanton breach of extant laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Asomugha also said the union was dissatisfied with the way the committee set up to address the HND/BSc dichotomy handled the case.
“A committee was set up but we were not satisfied with their work. We are waiting for them to submit their report so we will raise our own objections,” he said.
On the appointment of rectors from outside the polytechnic system, Asomugha said many polytechnic lecturers have the requisite qualifications to be made rectors instead of imposing professors from the university system.
“Don’t we have Ph.D holders in polytechnics? There is no academic qualification called professor. The highest qualification is the PhD and there are many that have it in the polytechnic system,” he said.
In an interview, Mr Tunji Owoeye, chairman of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti ASUP, claimed that Wike was employing tactics to frustrate the union’s negotiations. He therefore called for Wike’s removal.
“There is a deadlock now because it seems the minister is using setback tactics. This same minister who said the CONTISS 16 would be paid twice has now gone to the ministry of wages to say that CONTISS 16 is illegal. So, instead of paying arrears now, those who were promoted to CONTISS 15 will be de-migrated,” he said.
Defending the strike, Owoeye said though students may be affected now, they would be the beneficiaries of one of the key demands, the abolishment of the HND/BSc dichotomy.
“The strike may be adversely affecting students but we are doing it for their sake. Look at the disparity between HND and BSc Accounting holders. Are you saying they are different from each other? We are urging the Federal Government to do the harmonization and allow polytechnics to offer BTECH degrees,” he said.
Explaining why the union is against the IPPIS, Owoeye said it would deny them of payment that is rightfully theirs.
“We don’t want the IPPIS because it centralises the payment system. For instance, if you are on sabbatical in another institution, your salary continues to run. How do they recognize that at the centre? It also affects other contributions like our cooperative etc. We are not civil servants but they want to turn us into civil servants,” he said.
When contacted, Simeon Nwakaudu, Special Assistant (Media) to the Supervising Minister of Education refused to comment on the crisis.
source: http://thenationonlineng.net/new/11-month-teachers-strike-keeps-polytechnics-grounded/
0 Response to "11-month teachers’ strike keeps polytechnics grounded"
Post a Comment