The Federal Government said the refusal of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, to accept the payment of their N40 billion emolument in two instalments is responsible for the lingering strike.
The Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, said this in Bauchi on Monday at the North-East stakeholders’ town hall meeting on Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, intervention.
“We met ASUP leadership in January and they presented their position that the Federal Government should pay N40 billion to show that government is committed to their plight.
“We agreed to pay N20 billion in March and the remaining N20 billion will be in October 2014.
“But they later came back and said they will not accept the instalment unless government pays the N40 billion at once.
“So, they went and said government is doing nothing. If they have accepted our proposal by now we will have paid the first instalment.
“That is the stage where we are today and nobody will agree to tell you this truth.
“All what we hear is that government is not interested in polytechnic education whereas government is interested to see that the students are back in school.
Mr. Wike said the federal government has implemented about four or five of the six demands ASUP made.
ASUP has been on strike since October 2013.
The minister said the Federal Government had made more investment in the education sector than any other administration in the past. He said the Federal Government released not less than N480 billion to Federal Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education nationwide by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund through various interventions.
The Vice Chancellor of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Mohammed Mohammed, thanked TETFUND for special interventions of three billion naira provided for the university.
Mr. Mohammed said the money was expended on the building of library complex, school of engineering, among others.
He also thanked the board of trustee of TETFUND for the release of N400 million being currently expended on the construction of the university’s medical college.
Also, TETFUND Chairman, Board of Trustee, Musa Babayo, said the fund would do its best to meet the mandate of arresting infrastructure decay in the nation’s education sector.
(NAN)
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The truth is that both the States and Federal governments have low regard for Polytechnic education and their products. They are not serious with technical and technological education which are the bedrock of developments and inventions.
ReplyDeleteIt is very patetic dat d nigerian govt nd d nig lecturers dnt have 4 nig students
ReplyDelete