Workers kick as FG plans downgrading of varsities
Alleged plan to return the four
newly-created universities of education to their former colleges of
education status is causing ripples among stakeholders, CHARLES ABAH and
ADE AKANBI report
From the Adeyemi Federal University of
Education, Ondo, Ondo State; Alvan Ikoku University of Education,
Owerri, Imo State; Federal College of Education, Zaria; and the Federal
University of Education, Kano, there was agitation bordering on the same
issue last week.
The agitators were members of the
Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Senior Staff Association of
Nigerian Universities. Their mission was similar: the protesters were
kicking against the Federal Government’s alleged plan to reverse the
upgrading of the institutions.
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The
former President Goodluck Jonathan, at the twilight of his
administration, had upgraded these colleges of education to
universities.
Curiously, till date, there has not been a
statement from any government quarters confirming or denying the move.
From the National Universities Commission, the body statutorily saddled
with the responsibility of overseeing the nation’s universities and the
Federal Ministry of Education, mum is the word on their lips.
At least as of Monday, no one had
officially talked about the planned downgrade, yet these schools have
not known peace in the past few days. When contacted, the National
Universities Commission’s Head of Public Relations, Ibrahim Yakassai,
only referred one of our correspondents to the FME.
The ministry’s Spokesman, Mr. Olu Lipede,
who initially promised to get back to one of our correspondents, did
not eventually respond to the several calls made to his telephone.
Lipede had earlier promised to find out
the “true position of things” from his superiors, but he never did that
as of the time of going to the press by 8pm.
However, for the protesting workers, there is no smoke without fire.
According to them, the administration of
President Muhammadu Buhari has concluded arrangement to downgrade the
universities in line with its plot to restructure the nation’s education
sector.
Speaking on the development, the AFUE
Joint Non-Teaching Staff Action Committee Chairman, Femi Lademikan, said
the workers of the institution had cause to protest against the plan.
Lademikan said, “We want our university
to remain. We are appealing to the government through this peaceful
demonstration that what we want is our university status.
“We want to tell President Buhari that we
have everything required to make this institution a university. We have
the people, resources and everything to take to maintain this school.
We have the structure and the enabling environment, just as we are
peaceful and cooperative.
“Mr. President must not listen to people who don’t love him, sycophants and those enemies of progress.”
The FUEK-ASUU Chairman, Dr. Abubakar
Haruna, laid the blame on the doorsteps of the former provosts of the
colleges. According to him, the former administrators are conniving with
some powerful persons in government to persuade the President to return
the institutions to their former status.
Haruna added, “We feel that the President
must have been misinformed on the objectives for which the colleges
were upgraded. The damage this decision would do to host communities is
better imagined.
“The plot to revert this development, in
our opinion, is unpatriotic, counter-productive, obnoxious and
retrogressive. As you may be aware, NCE used to be the minimum teaching
qualification after the phasing out of the Grade II Teacher Certificate
in Nigeria.
“The nation has reached a stage when the
university degree in education would become the minimum qualification
for teaching in the national teacher education policy.”
However, a retired professor of Political Science, Kayode Soremekun, disagrees with Lademikan and Haruna.
Soremekun, who said that he would support
the policy somersault, noted that these newly upgraded schools did not
have the quality workers to mount the programmes.
“Let them not deceive anybody. They will
claim to have the right environment and workers but when you go there,
it will be a different thing on the ground.
“Well, they do not have enough faculties
to run these universities. I tell you many of them do not have the
staff. Generally, there is a chronic shortage of human resource in the
nation’s university system. To that extent, they are going to dip into
the same pool, which is not increasing anywhere. In this regard, I shall
support the policy change considering the paucity of the work force.”
The former Obafemi Awolowo University
lecturer also noted that the Jonathan administration might have upgraded
these institutions out of desperation to score some cheap political
points.
He explained, “Jonathan might have done
what he did then for political reasons, especially to gain electoral
victory. He was ready to do anything then to gain some mileages
politically. If one even checks the spread of the schools, one would see
that it had a touch of geographical intent. In any case, you cannot
divorce anything from politics.”
Meanwhile, ASUU at AFUE has warned in a statement that the planned reversal will elicit crisis in the university.
In the statement by its Public Relations
Officer, Olaolu Olaniyan, the union, therefore, urged the Federal
Government not to take such an action.
According to the union, the planned reversal will amount to backwardness for the institution.
The statement read, “It is utter dismay
and outright displeasure, the disturbing rumour making the rounds about
the purported reversal of the long-awaited and hard-earned university
status of Adeyemi Federal University of Education and three other
newly-upgraded universities of education. We want to express our
unequivocal rejection of such a reversal, which is only capable of
creating avoidable tension in the new university community and the host
community by extension.
“It is worthy of note that the university
has been in the vanguard of turning out well trained teachers for the
Nigerian education system for an upward of five decades. The upgrading
of the institution into a full-fledged university was premised on
several factors, chiefly, the high quality of members of the academic
staff who have worked assiduously over the years to produce an array of
well-trained teachers for the primary and secondary school components of
the Nigerian education system. The institution also runs postgraduate
diploma in education programme.
“We firmly subscribe to the belief that
the Federal Government’s decision to upgrade the institution into a
full-fledged university is a step in the right direction to revamp the
Nigerian education system, which is at an all-time low at present.
Production of well-trained teachers with bachelor’s degree, master’s
degree and doctoral degree in education would go a long way to salvage
the ailing Nigerian education system.
“While we appreciate the quagmire into
which the Nigerian economy has been plunged, it is not a sufficient
reason, as retrogressive elements adduced, to truncate the
implementation of the university status of the institution, which would
have profound positive impact on educational development in Nigeria in
the proximate future. It is therefore in the light of the foregoing that
the union rejects in absolute terms any attempt to truncate the
upgrading of the institution to a full fledge university status.”
The students too did not shy away from
the agitation. According to the President, Student Union Government of
the AFUE, Mr. Isiaka Kamarudeen, they will continue to kick against any
regressive action against the institution.
To support their teachers and other
members of staff, Kamarudeen said the students were ready to fight what
he described as injustice against the institution.
Meanwhile, the Special Adviser to the
President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, told one of our
correspondents that he was not aware of any plan to return the schools
to their former status.
Copyright PUNCH.
Alleged plan to return the four
newly-created universities of education to their former colleges of
education status is causing ripples among stakeholders, CHARLES ABAH and
ADE AKANBI report
From the Adeyemi Federal University of
Education, Ondo, Ondo State; Alvan Ikoku University of Education,
Owerri, Imo State; Federal College of Education, Zaria; and the Federal
University of Education, Kano, there was agitation bordering on the same
issue last week.
The agitators were members of the
Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Senior Staff Association of
Nigerian Universities. Their mission was similar: the protesters were
kicking against the Federal Government’s alleged plan to reverse the
upgrading of the institutions.
ADVERTISEMENT
The
former President Goodluck Jonathan, at the twilight of his
administration, had upgraded these colleges of education to
universities.
Curiously, till date, there has not been a
statement from any government quarters confirming or denying the move.
From the National Universities Commission, the body statutorily saddled
with the responsibility of overseeing the nation’s universities and the
Federal Ministry of Education, mum is the word on their lips.
At least as of Monday, no one had
officially talked about the planned downgrade, yet these schools have
not known peace in the past few days. When contacted, the National
Universities Commission’s Head of Public Relations, Ibrahim Yakassai,
only referred one of our correspondents to the FME.
The ministry’s Spokesman, Mr. Olu Lipede,
who initially promised to get back to one of our correspondents, did
not eventually respond to the several calls made to his telephone.
Lipede had earlier promised to find out
the “true position of things” from his superiors, but he never did that
as of the time of going to the press by 8pm.
However, for the protesting workers, there is no smoke without fire.
According to them, the administration of
President Muhammadu Buhari has concluded arrangement to downgrade the
universities in line with its plot to restructure the nation’s education
sector.
Speaking on the development, the AFUE
Joint Non-Teaching Staff Action Committee Chairman, Femi Lademikan, said
the workers of the institution had cause to protest against the plan.
Lademikan said, “We want our university
to remain. We are appealing to the government through this peaceful
demonstration that what we want is our university status.
“We want to tell President Buhari that we
have everything required to make this institution a university. We have
the people, resources and everything to take to maintain this school.
We have the structure and the enabling environment, just as we are
peaceful and cooperative.
“Mr. President must not listen to people who don’t love him, sycophants and those enemies of progress.”
The FUEK-ASUU Chairman, Dr. Abubakar
Haruna, laid the blame on the doorsteps of the former provosts of the
colleges. According to him, the former administrators are conniving with
some powerful persons in government to persuade the President to return
the institutions to their former status.
Haruna added, “We feel that the President
must have been misinformed on the objectives for which the colleges
were upgraded. The damage this decision would do to host communities is
better imagined.
“The plot to revert this development, in
our opinion, is unpatriotic, counter-productive, obnoxious and
retrogressive. As you may be aware, NCE used to be the minimum teaching
qualification after the phasing out of the Grade II Teacher Certificate
in Nigeria.
“The nation has reached a stage when the
university degree in education would become the minimum qualification
for teaching in the national teacher education policy.”
However, a retired professor of Political Science, Kayode Soremekun, disagrees with Lademikan and Haruna.
Soremekun, who said that he would support
the policy somersault, noted that these newly upgraded schools did not
have the quality workers to mount the programmes.
“Let them not deceive anybody. They will
claim to have the right environment and workers but when you go there,
it will be a different thing on the ground.
“Well, they do not have enough faculties
to run these universities. I tell you many of them do not have the
staff. Generally, there is a chronic shortage of human resource in the
nation’s university system. To that extent, they are going to dip into
the same pool, which is not increasing anywhere. In this regard, I shall
support the policy change considering the paucity of the work force.”
The former Obafemi Awolowo University
lecturer also noted that the Jonathan administration might have upgraded
these institutions out of desperation to score some cheap political
points.
He explained, “Jonathan might have done
what he did then for political reasons, especially to gain electoral
victory. He was ready to do anything then to gain some mileages
politically. If one even checks the spread of the schools, one would see
that it had a touch of geographical intent. In any case, you cannot
divorce anything from politics.”
Meanwhile, ASUU at AFUE has warned in a statement that the planned reversal will elicit crisis in the university.
In the statement by its Public Relations
Officer, Olaolu Olaniyan, the union, therefore, urged the Federal
Government not to take such an action.
According to the union, the planned reversal will amount to backwardness for the institution.
The statement read, “It is utter dismay
and outright displeasure, the disturbing rumour making the rounds about
the purported reversal of the long-awaited and hard-earned university
status of Adeyemi Federal University of Education and three other
newly-upgraded universities of education. We want to express our
unequivocal rejection of such a reversal, which is only capable of
creating avoidable tension in the new university community and the host
community by extension.
“It is worthy of note that the university
has been in the vanguard of turning out well trained teachers for the
Nigerian education system for an upward of five decades. The upgrading
of the institution into a full-fledged university was premised on
several factors, chiefly, the high quality of members of the academic
staff who have worked assiduously over the years to produce an array of
well-trained teachers for the primary and secondary school components of
the Nigerian education system. The institution also runs postgraduate
diploma in education programme.
“We firmly subscribe to the belief that
the Federal Government’s decision to upgrade the institution into a
full-fledged university is a step in the right direction to revamp the
Nigerian education system, which is at an all-time low at present.
Production of well-trained teachers with bachelor’s degree, master’s
degree and doctoral degree in education would go a long way to salvage
the ailing Nigerian education system.
“While we appreciate the quagmire into
which the Nigerian economy has been plunged, it is not a sufficient
reason, as retrogressive elements adduced, to truncate the
implementation of the university status of the institution, which would
have profound positive impact on educational development in Nigeria in
the proximate future. It is therefore in the light of the foregoing that
the union rejects in absolute terms any attempt to truncate the
upgrading of the institution to a full fledge university status.”
The students too did not shy away from
the agitation. According to the President, Student Union Government of
the AFUE, Mr. Isiaka Kamarudeen, they will continue to kick against any
regressive action against the institution.
To support their teachers and other
members of staff, Kamarudeen said the students were ready to fight what
he described as injustice against the institution.
Meanwhile, the Special Adviser to the
President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, told one of our
correspondents that he was not aware of any plan to return the schools
to their former status.
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