FG reveals one contentious issue to be resolved before ASUU strike ‘ll be called off

The federal government has said the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) would soon be called off.

Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Education Sonny Echono gave the assurance weekend in an interview with journalists in Abuja after monitoring the professional qualifying examination organised by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).

The strike

Following an unresolved dispute with the federal government over the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) among others, the varsity lectures commenced an industrial action March 24, 2020.

At different times, the two parties met with no shifting ground, not even with the intervention of Speaker House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila.  

And following the non-resolution of the dispute, the federal government vowed to invoke the necessary labour law if the teachers failed to resume this week.

Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige handed down the threat while featuring on Channels Television.

The minister said the government had met six of the union’s nine demands and that they would meet again next week with the hope of ending the prolonged strike.

Fresh hope

However, the permanent secretary has given fresh hope that the government would soon find a way out of the dispute.

While saying the strike was unnecessary, Echono stated that all issues tabled by the union but one, were already resolved, adding that there were better ways of making things work.

“The government is working very closely. We are very concerned and the President is very concerned about this protracted (ASUU) strike which, to so many of us, is unnecessary. We believe there are other ways of getting things done.

“There’s a shared acceptance of so many of the issues and we are at a point that very quickly and soon, it will be resolved. There’s only one issue in contention, really. The other issues have either been resolved or there have been some kind of compromise that worked out.

“We believe that reason will prevail and the overall national interest will be the guiding principle in coming to a quick resolution. I can assure you that work is going on assiduously in this.

“Only two days ago, the ASUU executives were at the Ministry to meet with the Minister for certain consultations and we felt we needed to tell them exactly what our positions are.

“We will look at the overall interest of the Nigerian people. We know that we also operate in a context of government playing out different segments even in the University setting.

“We have four different unions making demands and we have to balance this. We understand the peculiarities of ASUU and we believe the members are patriotic enough to know when to call it quits and what to call a compromise,” Echono said.

PS on teaching benchmark

Echono said it was imperative to put the benchmark on teaching to ensure only the best brains were in Nigerian classrooms as teachers.

He said from 2021, only qualified teachers would be allowed to teach in the country.

The PS also said a national implementation committee would be inaugurated in the coming week to ensure the federal government’s agenda on teachers’ registration and revitalisation was achieved, especially the entry qualification for teachers in schools.

“With effect from next year, we will not admit or engage people as teachers if they don’t meet a particular threshold. We are now limiting entry to only the best.

“You must have a First Class or 2:1 as minimum and if you have qualification in other subjects that is not in education, we will arrange for a conversion programme to be administered by the National Teachers Institute, TRCN and any University that has Faculties of Education or this programme because you also have to learn ways of communicating and managing students.

“We are migrating teachers who are not qualified or do not have the requisite qualifications, competency, not licensed or registered to seamlessly leave our classrooms to make way for qualified personnel because we want to achieve learning and teaching and learning occurs in our schools,” he said.

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