Another effort by the Senate to end the polytechnics lecturers’ strike will be made on Tuesday. An earlier meeting on June 24 was botched because government representatives failed to turn up. Among the issues in contention in the lecturers’ charter of demands are the payment of N20 billion arrears of salary and funding to prevent the complete breakdown of facilities in 59 public-owned polytechnics. But even if the trade dispute is resolved now, the students would have lost one session as the school calendar runs from September to June. Undoubtedly, technical education is in jeopardy with this development.
At the root of the impasse is government’s serial failure to honour agreements it entered into with the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics in 2001. Besides the N20 billion and the parlous state of the institutions, other grey areas include the release of the White Paper on Visitations to Federal Polytechnics, Needs Assessment of Polytechnics, appointment of unqualified persons as rectors, state governments’ refusal to adopt 65 years as retirement age for academic staff and the dichotomy between university and polytechnic graduates in the job market.
Riled by Federal Government’s indifference to its case, ASUP, together with their counterparts from the Colleges of Education, protested in Abuja. But instead of being heard, the protesters suffered the indignity of being tear-gassed by the police. Neither this nor the withdrawal of 10 federal polytechnics in Ado-Ekiti, Auchi, Damaturu, Offa, Nekede in Owerri, Ilaro, Kebbi, Bali, Ede and Bida from the struggle has affected their resolve.
In May, a House of Representatives bid to broker a deal to end this current dispute that began last October, failed as ASUP rejected the offer made by the Minister in charge of Education, Nyesom Wike, to pay the arrears in phases. It is shameful that government is finding it difficult to release this amount to the lecturers when looters easily walk to the country’s treasury to siphon bigger amounts, without being punished, even when caught.
As it appears, the Federal Government is trifling with the problem by narrowing the lecturers’ grievances to the issue of bread and butter. ASUP president, Chibuzor Asomugha, has scoffed at such a shift, emphasising, “If you pay all the arrears and the situation in the institutions remain the same, nobody’s purpose (interest) would have been served.” We, therefore, urge the government to use today’s meeting brokered by the Senate to put this sad tale behind us.
The government faced the same quagmire in 2013 when the Academic Staff Union of Universities staged its own strike that lasted six months. As usual, the rot in the country’s ivory towers and unpaid remunerations resonated. Some of the universities reportedly had no science laboratories or, at best, had ones with kerosene stoves supplanting Bunsen burners. ASUU’s doggedness paid off. The government eventually released N200 billion for the immediate needs of lecturers and universities, with a promise to commit N1.1 trillion to the provision of infrastructure within the next five years.
Why then is the Federal Government treating the case of polytechnics lecturers differently? There could not have been any reason other than its abject ignorance of the critical role technical education plays in a developing economy.
Even among the most developed countries, this type of education helps to consolidate their economic supremacy. This explains why it remains the fulcrum of Germany’s educational system; and serves as a model in many parts of Europe. This is also one of the reasons why Germany has become an oasis of economic stability amid the unemployment crunch on the continent.
The story is not different in Singapore either. As one of the Asian Tigers with the enviable record of leaping from Third World countries to the First World, Singapore organised the Polytechnics’ Forum in October 2009 to strengthen its technical education based on her manpower needs, and the demand of over 40 per cent of school-leavers.
In contrast, the Federal Government made moves in 2006 to abolish polytechnics. They were to be campuses of universities. Only Yaba College of Technology and Kaduna Polytechnic were to be upgraded to universities. But the plan petered out because ASUP kicked against it.
Obviously, the government was influenced by Britain, which abolished such schools 22 years ago, with the passage of Further and Higher Education Act 1992. They are now forebears of the “metropolitan universities” in the UK. In trying to import such idea, our authorities ignored the fact that some of their polytechnics had existed for more than a century, and also helped Britain to develop its economy. London Polytechnic, for instance, was set up in 1838.
Why do we have to emulate Britain when Nigeria’s technological take-off has not started as yet? Polytechnic education here began with Yaba Tech in 1947, out of the idea to provide middle-level manpower and industry-ready graduates for the country’s development. That fewer students now seek admission to polytechnics is not a reason at all to overlook technical education. As a matter of fact, the apathy stems from government’s failure to tackle a genuine concern like inadequate funding.
While shortsightedness might not allow our authorities to see the long term deleterious consequences of its action, one of its immediate telling upshots is the dearth of skilled artisans. Nigeria now imports masons, plumbers, tilers, carpenters and other artisans that put finishing touches to buildings from Benin Republic. The Chinese have appropriated a large chunk of these jobs.
As unemployment bites harder, with its sundry dangers for the country, polytechnics are better suited to inculcate the much-needed entrepreneurial skills in graduates for them to be job providers rather than seekers. The Nigeria Immigration Service recruitment stampede that claimed 19 lives in 2014 ought to have provided the authorities some useful lessons in this regard.
