Coalition faults FG’s education policies

Save-Public-Education-Campaign, a Civic Coalition has condemned what it termed ‘the unpopular policies’ of the federal government in the education sector, saying this has “adversely affected public universities and tertiary institutions across the country.”

Convener of the coalition Comrade Vivian Bello Macaulay, stated this in Abuja during a Press Conference tagged “ASUU Strike and the present Crisis in the Education Sector”.

He urged citizens on mass action to defeat government’s attack on education.

Macaulay expressed worry that universities have been closed down for too long a time, adding that the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and Colleges of Education (COEASU) including SSANU and NASU announced a ‘devastating’ two-months extension of the strike all on similar issues as ASUU yet government is more concerned in playing politics.

“We watched with total awe and abhorrence the near-total collapse of Tertiary Education in Nigeria. Distressing statistics show, that the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU has been on strike for a total of over 725 days, since the beginning of this administration over issues that bother largely on poor welfare, University Autonomy and lack of adequate funding for Universities.

“When tallied inversely, this amounts to an entire two and half years lost, in the educational lives of innocent Nigerian Children/Students in public Universities across the Country.

“It did not end there; The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, and Colleges of Education, ASUP and COEASU are all also currently on strike on similar issues as ASUU. We all can see clearly, that this is an all-round collapse of the Tertiary Education in the Country. Only last week, while the Minister of Labour was rehearsing a familiar cracked refrain that government was working hard and that the strike will soon end, the SSANU and NASU came out to announce a devastating two-months extension of the strike,” she noted.

She further lamented that the sum of N1.29tn, or 7.9% budgeted for Education in 2022 is a far-cry from UNESCO’s standard recommendation of 26% minimum, saying that the meager allocation to the sector underscores the lip-service the Country’s authorities pay to Education.

“In all of these, the Nigerian authorities have not seen any compelling need to either devote the action and attention or resources that are needed to tackle this ugly state of affairs of the Tertiary Educational Sector in Nigeria.

“On the contrary, they rather see and consider playing politics and the attendant wastage of humongous resources on Political Parties’ Nomination forms and Primaries as priorities while relegating issues as fundamental as the Education and future of Nigerian Children to the back-bench.

“This is totally tragic. But then of course they do not care. Infact, they can’t care any less. Not with the children of the common-man as we know it being the ones that attend public schools in Nigeria. On the other hand, the children of ruling elites are graduating in different international Universities across developed countries around the world.

“Soon, if the situation persists, we will have no option than to compile names of these public officials and their children, and demand the hosting countries and schools expel them to return and have education as is, in their home country, Nigeria,” she threaten.