Three-month-old tertiary institutions’ strike paralyses education in Kano

An industrial action by Kano tertiary institutions’ lecturers started like a child’s play on July 15, this year but slowly degenerated into a full blown protracted strike despite appeals and series of negotiations. Academic staff of Kano Polytechnic, Audu Bako College of Agriculture, Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, College of Arts and Science (CAS) and […]

An industrial action by Kano tertiary institutions’ lecturers started like a child’s play on July 15, this year but slowly degenerated into a full blown protracted strike despite appeals and series of negotiations.

Academic staff of Kano Polytechnic, Audu Bako College of Agriculture, Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, College of Arts and Science (CAS) and Aminu Kano College of Islamic Legal Studies, embarked on the strike in order to press home demands for better salaries, improved infrastructure, tax reduction, among others

After exhausting almost all avenues without success, the teachers resorted to going spiritual in order to bring an end to the strike. At a prayer session in Kano last week, the lecturers called for divine intervention in the matter, saying since government has failed to answer their call, it may likely answer the divine call.

Less than a week after holding the special congregational prayer session involving the affected lecturers, they planned to stage a peaceful rally in the state. But the rally was however, aborted by the police on the premise that it would threaten peace and stability in the state.

According to the chairman of the Joint Consultative Forum (JCF) of Kano tertiary institutions, Malam Yusuf Alhassan, poor infrastructure in the state tertiary institutions has become worrisome. He said they could not fold their arms to see the collapse of education in the state without making efforts to salvage it.

It was learnt that before embarking on the strike, they had written several times to the government, intimating it about their demands but government dumped the deluge of correspondences into the garbage without even a reply. According to Alhassan, government only responded when they noted their resolve to go on strike.

Alhassan said owing to lack of lecture halls in the schools, between 400 and 500 students attend class at a time. He said their fear was that a circular on carrying-capacity from the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) had directed them to strictly adhere to carrying-capacity principles, which translate to 40 students per class.

He said apart from demands for the improvement of the infrastructure, they were also calling for the implementation of Consolidated Polytechnics and Colleges of the Education Salary Structure, which they said have been implemented in Jigawa, Kebbi, Kaduna and many southern states.

Although he commended government for reducing the GP house rent to 20 percent, and also another 20 percent reduction in tax, they were still calling on government to ensure equity with their counterparts in Kano University of Science and Technology and Bayero University , Kano , among others.

He also revealed that the last demand was that of autonomy of the institutions, which the state government also failed to accede to.

But Kano State government’s spokesman, Malam Sule Ya’u Sule, said the lecturers have never had it so good until the administration of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau. Sule, the Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Media and Public Relations, said if there was no adequate infrastructure in the said institutions, the NBTE or NCCE would not have accredited the many courses offered in the institutions.

He said apart from Kano State, there was no other state across the federation that gave its tertiary institutions’ lecturers brand new laptops – with latest technology to boot. “It is only in Kano lectures were given laptops in order to enhance their productivity,” said the spokesman.

On the issue of new salary structure, which the lecturers claimed have been implemented in other states of the federation, the governor’s spokesman said there was no state in the federation that implemented the salary structure. According to him, they sent people on fact-finding tour to some states but found out that the new salary structure has not been implemented in the states they claimed.

Malam Sule also said that in September last year, Kano State was the first state in the federation to borrow a leaf from the federal government by implementing salary increment. “Kano has many demands and despite that, we earn laurels in the welfare of workers. We are doing our best to see that the strike comes to an end and we are very much concerned about a situation whereby a school would be shut,” he said.

At Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, Kumbotso, Sunday Trust learnt that when the school was in session, students took lectures under trees and in the mosque. A student of the college who pleaded anonymity, told our correspondent that in their timetable, there are some class sessions that perpetually held outside or in the mosque because of lack of lecture hold and theatres.

“It is normal here for a class to hold in the mosque and under the tree. The students are too many and the lecture halls cannot accommodate all. So, we manage. That notwithstanding the difficulties and hope that government would address the situation,” he said.

But Haruna Sani, also a student in one of the tertiary institutions in the state, hold, a different view, saying government is only insensitive to both the students and the teachers’ plight.

“If their (top government officials) children are studying here with us nothing like this will happen. The situation would have been solved had they not taken their children to UK , America and Asia for studies. It is a fact that most of their children are studying either in America or Malaysia at our expense,” he said.

He urged government to suspend award of overseas scholarships and use the money that would otherwise go to the overseas scholarship awardees to settle the lecturers’ demands and upgrade the conditions of the schools.

But a student of Aminu Kano College of Islamic Legal Studies who simply identified himself as Abdullahi, said the strike has created so many problems to their academic pursuit. While accusing the lecturers of failure to negotiate the matter, he said they did not embark on the strike because of the dilapidated infrastructure in the schools but because of their personal demands.

“During their (lecturers) days as students, they had uninterrupted sessions despite the fact that their teachers in those days had not earned close to what they are earning as salaries and allowances today,” argued Abdullahi.

Our correspondent gathered that the strike has caught the attention of the National Assembly as the striking lecturers are today sitting with some members of the House of Representatives in order to bring an end to the strike.

That notwithstanding, many people are of the belief that unless government acceds to the demands, the strike might likely continue.