THE Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has given the Federal Government a 60- day ultimatum to meet its demands. The President of the Union, Mr. Asagha Okoro, said "the nation would regret looking down on the teaching education sector if concrete steps are not taken to address COEASU's grievances."
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In an exclusive interview with Vanguard Learning.
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Okoro said: "we have packaged all the issues facing the teaching education sector. If we do not see concrete action within 60 days, we will employ non conventional industrial methods to make our voice heard. What we are asking for is not much; most of these demands can be met with as little as N26bn.
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After a one week warning strike, the Union met with government representatives at the office of the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu, last Thursday. Outome of meeting Okoro, speaking on the outcome of the meeting said:
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"We were told that our concerns were germane and will be addressed. However, the issues discussed were forwarded to the Minister of State for Education and we were told that a meeting would be scheduled with him as soon as possible."
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The union had pointed out 17 issues to be addressed by the government. They include: "the suspicious delay in the release of the 2012 visitation white paper; the refusal of colleges managements to recruit commensurate academic manpower to cater for the high dearth of academic staff to meet the contemporary challenges engendered by the rising population of students; the non-harmonization of conditions of service for academic staff of all tertiary institutions to stem brain drain from the colleges of education to the universities; the proposed selective imposition of IPPIS in the CoE and the polytechnics; the truncation of a hitherto functional and innovative Tertiary Education Trust Fund leading to obvious regrettable gaps that compromises the critical need for the consolidation of the gains recorded during the past five years; non implementation of CONPCASS, 65years retirement age and Migration to CONTISS 15 in some state CoE; the non conduct of Needs Assessment for CoE to address students and staff needs for the enhancement of quality teaching and learning."