Following a three-month-old strike,
lecturers in Colleges of Education protested against the Federal
Government’s delay in meeting their demands, writes ARUKAINO UMUKORO
Last week Wednesday, on a sunny
afternoon, while their lecturers carried placards in solidarity with the
nationwide protest called by the executives of the Colleges of
Education Academic Staff Union, some students at the Federal College of
Education (Technical), Akoka, Lagos, were in one of the classes in the
science department, taking self-organised tutorials.
It is one of the ways some
‘serious-minded’ students have kept themselves busy since COEASU
embarked on a full-scale strike action last year December.
When our correspondent visited the
school, a first year student was seen teaching his peers Practical
Physics. He was talking about the mathematical constant and how it
affected equations.
Now in its third month, the COEASU
strike, despite not being a constant, has affected the school calendar
of not only students at FCE, Akoka, but also those in other federal and
state colleges of education nationwide.
“I don’t want to stay at home doing
nothing. So, I decided to come to school and study with my group,” said
one of the students among the few our correspondent met in the class. A
handful of students loitered around the school’s premises, which was
devoid of the usual hustle and bustle found on campuses during an
academic session.
“I’m tired of the strike. We have been at
home for too long. I’m supposed to have started my project, but it’s
on hold. I’m really angry. I want the Federal Government to grant the
request of our lecturers so that they would call off the strike,” said
Oladele Olayinka, a part three student in the Accounting department.
For business education student, Iyanu
Leke, many students in colleges of education are ‘wasting away’ because
of the strike. “The government should consider the future of these
students. Most of us are at home doing nothing. I’m pleading with the
government to answer the lecturers,” she said.
Indeed, the strike has affected the
students negatively, said Mr. Oje Ebenezer, a lecturer in the Fine and
Applied Arts department, and General Secretary, COEASU, Akoka chapter.
“Recently, the Students’ Union Government
president said many of their female peers got pregnant during the
period of the strike action. That is one bitter side of it. And whether
they like it or not, the strike means an additional year for the
students, if we are not able to cover the curriculum. Some students have
been organising tutorials among themselves to keep themselves busy
academically, because, like they say, an idle hand is the devil’s
workshop. The students have pleaded with us to call off the strike, but
this is not a local strike, but a national one. There is nothing we can
do until the government accedes to our demands,” Ebenezer said.
FCE, Akoka is a microcosm of the current
situation in the federal and state colleges of education nationwide. The
national body mobilised all it chapters to adhere to the nationwide
protest, which it said may last for a week.
“We are hell-bent on ensuring that our
students return to the classroom. It is a critical condition. But there
is no going back on the demonstration. The next step is that we would
march the entire stakeholders to Abuja. We pray it doesn’t get to that
extent,” COEASU National President, Mr. Asagha Nkoro, told SUNDAY PUNCH.
He decried the fact that the Federal
Government had failed to respond to its demands, despite the several
meetings the union executives held with it. “We met with the FG in
February, but nothing came out of it, nothing has been done so far. The
government pleaded that we give them till March 18. That meeting could
hold and the government would say that we should wait till April. It is
not their children that are out of school, but children of the less
privileged,” he noted.
One of the issues in contention between
the FG and COEASU is the 2010 agreement, which the former said the FG
has refused to fully implement. These include the non-integration and
payment of peculiar/earned allowances, non-implementation of life
insurance to families of deceased members, and the non-implementation of
the retirement age of 65 in many states’ colleges of education.
The other issues include poor
infrastructural development in colleges of education nationwide, poor
funding, neglect of teachers’ education, non-accreditation of National
Certificate of Education programmes, non-release of the whitepaper on
the visitation panel reports, and the imposition of the Integrated
Personnel and Payroll Information System.
“All the needs we have raised so far are
all important. No one is less important than the other. We can only
excuse the government if they say the money is not there, but we know
the money is there to carry out other projects, why not do so for the
development of education? The government has simply not set its
priorities right,” said the chairman, COEASU, Akoka chapter, Mr.
Olayanju Abolaji.
Abolaji further said that the government
seemed to have taken the union for granted for so long. He said, “The
union has gone on strike repeatedly in the past but it has always called
it off in no time because we are a responsible union. We are also
mindful of the plight of our students and the consequences of the strike
on them and nation at large.
“That is what the government is
capitalising on; this is why it has not taken us seriously. But this
time, we are not going back until our demands are met. We don’t mind how
long it would take, it is not for our selfish gains, but it is for the
interest of the entire populace. If our children are well educated, we
will all enjoy it.”
He described the nation’s education
sector as comatose, adding that the government was not sensitive enough
to urgently address the needs of the tertiary institutions. “If the
government would be objective and look at the issues sincerely, it would
realise that if these demands were not addressed, it would have
far-reaching consequences on the country,” he noted.
It took an over five months strike for
the Federal Government to finally agree to the demands of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities. When asked if the COEASU strike may last
that long, Nkoro said, “We are not measuring our strike with that of
ASUU. We have different issues, that is why we didn’t declare our action
when ASUU declared its. We thought we could continue the dialogue and
the government would listen. But, they have failed us.
“That is why we have declared our strike
and we don’t know where it would take us to. ASUU strike lasted for over
five months, this strike is now in its third month, and nobody is
saying anything. We hope this strike doesn’t continue, and it doesn’t
get to the ASUU situation, but it starts little by little.”
He urged the government to ensure the strike does not linger.
Speaking with our correspondent, the
Special Assistant (Media) to the Coordinating Minister of Education,
Nyesom Wike, Mr. Simon Nwakadu, said the government had tackled most of
the issues raised by COEASU.
He said, “The Federal Government met with
them (COEASU) repeatedly and has issued a position paper. The main
issue is the payment of their allowances and the FG has given them an
option of payment in two instalments, that’s the only issue left. There
is no other issue the FG has not tackled.
“Our expectation is that the strike would
end soon because the engagement with the Federal Ministry of Education
and Federal Ministry of Labour has been total, the NEEDS assessment is
also there. We are expecting their (COEASU) National Executive Council
to come out with their position. It’s not the position of one or two
officials.”
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