Govt’s disposition to education system is unacceptable – COEASU

Why did COEASU say government continual indifference to the plight of colleges of education is a grave error of judgment?

 

The Expanded National Executive Council (ENEC) of COEASU met recently and resolved to consider lifting the suspension of the national strike which the union embarked upon between 2013 and 2014. This is against the backdrop of the glaringly questionable disposition of government to issues of contention between government and the union. Nothing much has been done by government, both state and federal, besides lip service to attend to the lingering issues in spite of all entreaties – meeting with the Minister of Education and the series of dialogue between the union and state government officials. 

 

You have engaged in a series of dialogue. What has been the outcome of such engagements?

 

It is quite disheartening to note that, in addition to the intervention of well-meaning individuals of some states, the colleges of education with state proprietorship, remain confronted with threatening neglect; ranging from non-payment of salaries for over seven months (as has been the case with Ogun, Osun, Ekiti and Benue State colleges of education), to wanton conversions to university without the prerequisite legal and institutional framework for the smooth transition and reintegration of the academic staff (this is particularly the case with Bayelsa and Edo states). Other state colleges, with the exception of a few, are reeling with avoidable challenges engendered by government. Given the debilitating effect on the service delivery, especially the teaching-learning process which is crucial for the basic education/foundation level of our education system, the show of lack-of-stake and neglect of the system by the technocrats and politicians in positions of leadership remains unacceptable.  

 

What has been the effort of the federal government towards fulfilling your demands?

 

On the part of the federal government, while the union had been hopeful that her meeting with the Minister of Education early this year, on March 16, 2016, specifically, would ginger or yield the expected focus on the plight of teacher and teacher education at the College of Education (COE) level, it is quite disheartening that nothing has been heard of government at the centre. Sadly, the federal government’s refusal to come to terms with the lingering issues has further created an atmosphere of apprehension in the colleges. So, the union shall be compelled to simulate a scheme to resist this trend to save the common man’s child if the federal government remains adamant in taking verifiable or concrete steps toward addressing the lingering issues in contention, which include but not limited to the following: the implementation of the recommendations of Needs Assessment report; prompt implementation of promotion and the associated funding needs; release of funds for academic staff training and development; release of the report of the 2014 Inter-Ministerial Committee on dual mode; constitution of governing councils for Federal Colleges of Education (FCEs); review of the obsolete laws establishing the FCEs and National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE); mutilated salary regimes or shortfalls in allocations to colleges; the threatening disposition of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) to allowance in the colleges and the commencement of renegotiation of 2010 agreement.