Without ASUU’s Agitations for wide-ranging reforms in Nigeria’s tertiary education system, what would Nigerian Universities look like?
Better or worse?
No strikes, no delay of students from completing their degrees at the right time. Reduced drop-out rate of delayed and disillusioned students. Timely turnout of graduates – Bachelors, Masters, Phds – for the labour market.
This sounds better. Life without ASUU’s hassles.
That is exactly what you get in the primary and secondary tiers of education in the country. No strikes by the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT). Primary and secondary students graduate at the right time. No delays. Everyone just moves on in life.
ASUU can simply take a cue from the peace and progress of students in state public primary and secondary schools, and in the few federal unity secondary schools, and just face their work. And if there are challenges with their work, they should either build up coping mechanisms or resign, as honourable people do in other walks of life.
And that reminds of Nigeria’s private universities. Some are cheap, some affordable, some pricey. But they show us the typical university life without ASUU’s hassles.
Better still, beyond just imagining this post-ASUU world of bliss, it would be great to measure in real terms the peace and progress that would be known in Nigeria’s university education system.
The truth is bitter. The lie is better. And ignorance is bliss.
Misconstrued Cues: The basis for undermining Nigeria’s Tertiary Education
Before measuring that hypothetical post-ASUU scenario, when the Nigerian federal and state governments would have successfully starved, sued, begged, and blackmailed Professor Emmanuel Osodeke and his colleagues to maintain the status quo, it is useful to understand why we got here in the first place.
When President Buhari said there was no more employment for graduates in the country. He only flashed the politically correct side of the coin. The uglier side of the coin is that the graduates are not employable. This apolitical part is what managers and employers in Nigeria agonise on everyday.
Nigeria’s education is in shambles – tattered primary schools and teetering high schools prepare students to be admitted to universities with a standard pass mark of 150 in 400 marks. The Polytechnics and Colleges of education are forced to admit students with as low as 100 in 400 marks.
Then the teachers in the Universities are saddled with the responsibility of remedying these unfortunate students.
However the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) insists its members cannot rescue these undereducated ones like these – without adequate funding for the teaching and learning environment and for their research and industrial income.
Some of the contentious issues that led to the strike by ASUU include the non-release of the revitalisation fund, non-payment of earned allowance (or earned academic allowance), renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement, and the release of the white paper for the visitation panel.
Others are: the non-payment of minimum wage arrears and the inconsistency occasioned by the use of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
Sadly, an increasing number of people are beginning to vilify ASUU for the body’s unrelenting demand that the government refocus and revamp the country’s tottering ivory towers.
Some believe ASUU is asking for too much. Some believe that the government has done its best. The Minister of labour said “there is no money anywhere.” Some argue that the government should hands off sponsoring public universities and face primary and secondary education.
They argue that government is over subsidising universities fees, and should raise student tuition and accommodation fees to provide quality education. They insist tertiary education is costly and is not meant for everyone.
Interestingly, advocates of these different solutions often refer to some countries in Europe, America, Asia, and so on, as countries with no cheap education.
Yet many of these countries by all means enable access to tertiary education for as many of their citizens as are willing, their poor and rich alike.
Where Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa, it has a tertiary education completion rate of 8%, behind Ghana’s 9%, as of 2018.
The argument is that only rich people in poor countries should attend tertiary institutions. Yet poor people in rich countries attend universities and colleges.
The question then is whether low income countries can ever become middle income countries like India or high income countries like France if their poor are deprived access to quality tertiary education.