Colleges of Education lecturers have recently made known their readiness to embark on another strike if the Federal Government fails to meet their demands.
The Colleges of Education teachers under the aegis of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU, have accused the federal government of not fulfilling the promises made some weeks back, which was what made the body suspend its strike four months ago.
The body made their aggrievance known in a letter to the Federal Government through the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu.
The letter was entitled,”Non-fulfilment of the Federal Government’s commitment on the lingering issues in contention: A call for urgent redress,” and through it, COEASU threatened to leave the classroom if the situation is not settled immediately.
It was stated that they only suspended their previous strike last December having accepted the FG’s offer to release N15 billion as palliative to cushion the effects of the decay in the infrastructure in colleges of education. Unfortunately, more than four months have passed, and the government are yet to fulfill their promises.
“The union is compelled by the prevailing atmosphere of non-commitment of Federal Government to the fulfilment of the resolutions reached with the union on issues of industrial concern, relative to the colleges of education, to call for urgent redress.”
“Please, recall that the union suspended her industrial action on December 5, 2018, having accepted FG’s offer to release the sum of N15bn as palliative intervention to cushion the effects of the decay in the infrastructure in public colleges of education.
“This, along with the other resolutions reached at the meeting of the Rapid Response Team, chaired by the Permanent Secretary, on the payment of Peculiar Academic Allowance, PAA, Dual Mode; implementation of CONTISS 15 on lower cadre; stalled renegotiation of 2010 COEASU-FGN Agreement; among others, informed the decision of the Union at the time.
“It is, however, quite disheartening to note that, more than four months after the resolutions, the status of the issues remains as they had been.”
