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No backing down on the ultimatum to suspend the implementation of the duty roster

By Gabriel Dike

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) reiterated on Monday that the federal government’s 15-day ultimatum to stop the implementation of the new duty roster at federal technical colleges remains in effect.

The National Executive Council (NEC) of ASUP on July 8, 2024, issued an ultimatum to the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to suspend the implementation of the roster document until the provisions identified as controversial are amended to bring them in line with global standards.

According to the union, this was necessary because it was found that the controversial document fell far short of acceptable standards.

This position was expressed during a discussion held at an extraordinary meeting of the Zonal Executive Committee (Zone C) of the union at Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) on the controversial duty roster recently released by the NBTE.

Zone C Coordinator, Comrade Adekunle Masopa, said the union had observed the inclusion of regressive provisions for polytechnic school graduates and the workforce and the sector in general in the document.

He added that these provisions undoubtedly pose an existential threat to polytechnic education.

Masopa highlighted the union’s comments, saying that the provisions contained in the document were not a faithful reflection of what the sector’s stakeholders had prepared on the various topics of the consultations convened and monitored by the regulator.

“This means that in the course of developing the roster, the NBTE expressed doubts about the procedure for approving the roster and a usurpation of the power of the administrative boards of the universities of applied sciences as employers of the staff at the universities of applied sciences.

He said that Section 3(1) of the Federal Polytechnics Act, 2024, as amended in 2019, gives the boards of directors corporate status, continuous succession and a common seal, thereby demonstrating a degree of autonomy.

He continued: “The inclusion of a lower-than-tertiary educational qualification, i.e. the National Skill Qualification (NSQ), as a compulsory requirement for career progression for academic staff in polytechnics is absurd and derogatory to the sector.”

Furthermore, he said that the NSQ was deviating from global standards by maintaining unacceptable titles for lecturers and librarians in the polytechnic sector.

The Zonal Coordinator further stated that the controversial document, also due to its content, further increased discrimination against Higher National Diploma (HND) holders in a system that favours them over holders of a Bachelor’s degree.

“This is made clear in the said document with regard to the differences in entry points and progression thresholds for HND and BSc holders in both the teaching and non-teaching categories.

“The document also contains provisions that unreasonably and unjustifiably increase the time to reach the peak of academic staff’s career from 18 to 26 years compared to other parts of the Nigerian education system,” he said.

ASUP further stated that the controversial document also confirmed the efforts of the NBTE to deliberately push the polytechnic out of the market by signing an unjustified Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Pharmacists Association of Nigeria regarding the status of Pharmaceutical Technology.

“This program was accredited by the NBTE in the HND (Higher Level) department, where many people currently hold corresponding certificates. In doing so, the NBTE has definitely put the fate of this group of people at risk and has discouraged further registrations for this program.

“Our union’s agitation against this controversial document is a sincere attempt to protect the polytechnic sector.”
The union also condemned the negligence of the NBTE in discharging its regulatory duties, including breaches in the appointment of senior officers at the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree, where the provisions of the template developed by the NBTE for such appointments at Nigeria Polytechnics were thrown out the window.

“The NBTE should deploy appropriate tools within its regulations to investigate the irregularities in the appointment of senior staff at the Osun Polytechnic, Iree.

The union also called on the Federal Ministry of Education to participate in the establishment of a Polytechnics Commission and the implementation of the dual mandate structure for polytechnics in accordance with the timetable of the Nigerian Education Roadmap to enable polytechnics to start offering degree programmes.

In his remarks, ASUP National President Comrade Kpanja Shammah said that the 15-day ultimatum will expire on Sunday, July 21, and the union will then convene a congress to decide on how to proceed if there is no response from the government.

On the future of polytechnic education, he said that if the dichotomy was removed, there would be a future for the HND, “if discrimination was removed. What stops people from studying in polytechnics is that after they graduate, when they want to work, they are discriminated against, they cannot progress beyond a certain level and they are even employed in certain fields where they are degraded. But if this dichotomy can be removed, discrimination can be reduced and polytechnics can develop beyond their current status,” he explained.