The National Officers’ Council of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU says it has observed with utter dismay the attitude of the Federal Government to the Colleges of Education sub-sector over the years, and has threatened to resume its suspended strike in a few weeks.
The Union in a statement signed by its National President Smart Olugbeko says in its characteristic disposition to peaceful resolution of issues, has between August and December 2021 met severally with the Minister, the Permanent Secretary, Directors, and other officials of the federal ministry of education that have roles in addressing the lingering issues between the Union and the government, yet no headway.
Some demands of COEASU include the delayed Renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement, the crises being created by the imposition of IPPIS and non release of the N15 billion Revitalisation Fund to colleges of Education.
COEASU says as critical as these issues are, the Federal government has been lackadaisical in resolving them.
It notes that the Federal Government in 2013 constituted a Presidential Committee to assess the needs of Colleges of Education in Nigeria, the Report submitted in 2014 by the Team indicated that the sum of Three Hundred and Ninety One Billion, Eighty Six Million, Seven Hundred and Thirty Eight thousand, Six Hundred and Thirty Six Naira (N391,086,738,636.00), which was later reviewed in 2017 by the Federal Ministry of Education to Four Hundred and Fifty Six Billion, Five Hundred and Ninety-Nine Million, Nine Hundred and Fourteen Naira, Eighteen Kobo (N465,599,691,914.18), would be needed to reposition Colleges of Education in Nigeria for better performance and for national development.
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It adds that the Federal Government citing paucity of funds in 2018 agreed to release N15 billion to revitalise Colleges of Education in Nigeria, unfortunately this funds has not been released.
COEASU is acusing the government of totally abandoning its responsibility of adequately funding teacher education as the government has left Colleges of Education in Nigeria to continue to suffer from infrastructural decay while the running of the Colleges is being done by the paltry Internally Generated Revenue, IGR of the Colleges.
The Union notes that it has been careful in deploying the instrumentality of strike to resolve the issues which it believes can be resolved through dialogue, but it seems the current government has preference for crisis as has shown in its dealings with unions that have no respect for peaceful resolution of issues.
The statement adds that COEASU is a teacher-training Colleges based union and all its members are professional teachers, who have perfect understanding of what disruption in academic calendar through strike can cause the students mentally, socially, and psychologically, unfortunately the government is pushing her to the brink.
Editor Paul Akhagbemhe
