While disrupting traffic at Yaba, Fadeyi, Jibowu, and Onipanu areas of Lagos, the students said they were out to express their grievances over the neglect of their plight by the Federal Government.
Many of them also bore placards with inscriptions such as "FG, please call off ASUP strike," "HND=BSc," "Nyesom Wike, Stop Discriminating and Intervene," "We want to return to our classes," etc.
While speaking with newsmen, the President of the Students' Union Government of the institution, Ganiyu Salvador said, "We are not protesting as YABATECH students, but as concerned students, and what we want to achieve is to have our voices heard.
"This strike has taken too long and nobody is saying anything about it. Unlike when ASUU was on strike, we don't get much attention from anybody. We have spent so much time at home. Is it because we are not university students?
"They are toiling with our future. Since nobody is speaking for us, we have decided to speak for ourselves. We want to know why the Federal Government and even the National Association of Nigerian Students have neglected us.
"We should not be spending more time than we are supposed to spend in school. We want our voices to be heard and something done urgently concerning our plight."
While emphasising his claim of neglect by the Federal Government, Salvador said the Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, had at the Tertiary Institutions Trust Fund event held at Ibadan, on Thursday, allegedly told them it was not a forum to discuss their plight when a question was posed to him regarding the strike and that they (polytechnic students) should stop intimidating him.
The students chanted various protest songs and chorused, "We are tired of going to the clubs, watching movies, and sleeping at home." Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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The best thing is to close all Polytechnics in the country because the indications are there that both the States and Federal Governments do not attach importance to Polytechnic education. That is why when ASUU went on strike everybody was shouting but ASUP had gone on strike before them nobody had expressed any concern. Even the parents and guardians of the students did not express any concern. What is now in vogue is Degree-mania. There is nothing wrong in having a degree but the Federal Govt has made it in a way that degree certificates are now being purchased even without the person studying them. Because of this degree-mania by the governments and employers of labour, employees pay their lecturers to award them pass marks just for them to go and present degree certificates to their employers. Whereas the Polytechnic students study hard to prove their
ReplyDeleteskills and knowledge. And yet no matter their intelligence and skill, they are not regarded as having certificates. Whereas what the Governments are after are degree certificates no matter how they are acquired. Rather than allowing both the Degree and HND holders to prove their mettle and productivity in their places of work by assessing them so as to know who is who, the employers of labour, the state and Federal Governments close their eyes to what the HND holders can do. What baffles me is that these Polytechnic graduates are Nigerians. Why on earth should someone spend 5 years in the polytechnic and after spending much time, much efforts and money, he is still expected to go and spend another years to acquire degree whereas he had become an expert in the technical or technological knowledge he went for? This degree-mania has robbed the country of technical and technological knowledge the country needed. This is because the HND holders have not been given the opportunity to rob shoulders with Degree holders by allowing them compete freely with their degree holding counterparts. Pegging their positions to second class citizens as far as their certificates are concerned is not in the interest of the technical and technological development of the country. It doesn't allow for free competition. It doesn't allow for reaching to the technological and technical climax. The Federal Govt should move away from the colonial mentality we inherited from our colonial masters. We should base on knowledge, productivity, skills, practicality and experience to judge the two certificate holders and not just one sidedness. After all the HND holders are Nigerians as well. Otherwise let all the Polytechnics be closed and let all of them go to the University and read.