on an indefinite strike in order to "salvage the institutions from
total collapse."
The strike was called on Monday, leading to the suspension of academic
activities at the Federal Colleges of education nationwide.
The lecturers are concerned over the Federal Government's Integrated
Personnel Payment System (IPPS) as well as on the decaying
infrastructure in the colleges. The strike came soon after university
lecturers ended a long-drawn industrial action that lasted nearly six
months.
An official of COAESU, who does not want to be named because he was
not authorised to speak, said the union went on strike because it
appeared this was the "only language that the Federal Government
understands."
"Our colleges are rotting away; no befitting libraries, hostels,
lecture halls and other structures. The books in our libraries today
are outdated," he said. The official said colleges of education needed
adequate funds for transformation to enable them provide the expected
services to the nation.
"Another vital issue which COEASU wants government to address is the
implementation of migration on its junior staff to the IPPS system….
COEASU wants government to stop the implementation of IPPS on the
colleges of education because it will disrupt its progress," he said.
He said "colleges of education as teacher-training institutions have
unique features different from that of universities. We have teacher
training and teaching practice programmes which are basic instruments
for producing qualitative teachers but government is not allocating
funds for these programmes."
The official added that colleges of education are sponsoring their
products for such programmes out of their salary allocations, and that
if the IPPS was implemented these programmes would automatically be
wiped out from the system.
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