Next ASUU Strike | Must Read

Lamentations over the Academic Staff Union of Universities,
ASUU, calling off its five-month-old strike have overtaken
the damage the long-drawn dispute has done to education.
How do we ensure that in the new year, another ASUU strike
does not occur?

What appears to be important is the fact that the lecturers are
returning to the classrooms. Government is relieved that it has
stopped the embarrassing headlines of universities that have
lost five months of academic activities while haggling over a
2009 agreement.

How important is education to the authorities? How would the
lost learning time be recovered? What is the quality of
certificates the students would obtain after the long absence
from school?

ASUU's refusal to call off the strike until government
produced proof of depositing the money to meet its demands
in the Central Bank is another chapter in government's
relations with ASUU. Other labour unions would adopt the
same measures in resolving own issues.

Government has failed to gain the trust of labour unions.
When the Academic Staff Union Polytechnics, ASUP, went
on strike, government did not speak to the union for three
months. The issue remains partially resolved. Governments
sign agreements with no intention of keeping them. The
disputed 2009 agreement is due for re-negotiation, yet it has
not been implemented.

Our governments should change their policies of planning for
immediate needs. ASUU is not the only labour union in
education. Its strike that took so long to resolve is not the
major challenge education faces.

At the foundational levels, challenges with number and
quality of teachers, teaching aids, classroom space, learning
environment, and curriculum persist. The thinking that once
the universities are open, education is on the proper ken is
deceptive. Higher education is at most vacuous when
foundations at the primary and secondary school levels are
ignored.

Governments urgently need to address these issues as well as
the bureaucracies in education. They are wasteful; savings
from emerging them could release funds for core education.

What are governments' plans beyond depositing N200 billion
to end the ASUU strike? How would they tackle sustainable
funding to stem another wave of strikes next year? Would
governments ever consider education important enough that it
should run without disruptions?

Thousands of conferences held annually on the future of
education are mere talk sessions that hardly improve education. When will the changes be made? Do governments
require strikes to realise the importance of education? What
are governments' plans for education?

Unions, which always consider the welfare of their members
as a first charge, cannot determine the future of education.

Governments should provide sustainable means for funding
education, not to avoid strikes, but to underline the
importance of education.

Via: Vanguard