The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), has called on the Federal Government to honour the agreement it had with them. Failure to honour the agreement, they have vowed to proceed on indefinite strike.
COEASU said: ”The Federal Government should take immediate step towards acceding to the various demands of the union, based on the agreement reached before we suspended our two months old strike in December 2018.”
In the release made available to Blueprint Monday and jointly signed by the President, Nuhu Ogirima and General Secretary, Taiwo Olayanju, warned of imminent strike.
It said that only an urgent attention by FG to the lingering contentious issues, would forestall disruption of academic activities in the Colleges of Education across the country.
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Decrying the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) towards the desired effective resolution of all the protracted issues, COEASU said: “Following the re-appointment of Malam Adamu Adamu, as Minister of Education, the Union expects a meaningful rejigging of the system.
”COEASU wants the Minister to ensure the resolution of all lingering issues in contention and that FME would address the manifest marginalization of the COE system in the governance of tertiary education sub-sector.
“While our expectations subsist, Council charges FME and the NCCE to take the issues of the colleges seriously to avert any possible disruption in the COE calendar in the pursuit of the following lingering issues mentioned in several of our correspondences.
They include.\, (a) Presidential assent to the reviewed Establishment Laws of FCEs and NCCE as passed by the National Assembly;
(b) executive approval of Dual Mode (NCE and Degree) for Colleges of Education; to check attrition of subscription to teacher education by both students and lecturers;
(c) the non-release of the fifteen billion naira (N15bn) palliative funds pledged by the FGN to revitalize the public COEs;
(d) the non-payment of the sum of about two billion five hundred million naira (N2.5bn) Peculiar Earned Academic Allowances (PEAA); and
(e) review of the policy of out-sourced services and its implication on security in the institutions.”
COEASU expressed dissatisfaction over the attempt to impose the application of the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS) on colleges of education considering the peculiarities of tertiary institutions.
It said: “For the records, it is instructive to note that Council reiterated her dismay over the prolonged surreptitious plan to impose an incongruous and defective payment platform on the colleges of education system.
