The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has issued a stark ultimatum, threatening to embark on an industrial strike unless the government suspends the new scheme of service recently implemented in Nigerian polytechnics since June 7.
This declaration came after an emergency congress held by the Auchi Polytechnic chapter of ASUP.
Chairman Bamidele Osamudiamen of ASUP’s Auchi chapter emphasized to journalists that the new scheme poses a serious threat to the advancement and progress of polytechnic education in the country.
“Starting on Monday, we will kickstart the process with a protest on the new scheme, which will be followed by a strike,” he said.
Mr Osamudiamen reiterated that the new scheme represented a “dead-end” to the career progression of lecturers in the polytechnic system.
He said that the new scheme would erode the gains recorded by the sector in recent times.
According to him, the new scheme of service will further reinforce the HND-BSc dichotomy.
He condemned the document for promoting discriminatory practices favouring university degree holders over HND holders in the country.
“The unfair career progression guide in the sector, particularly as it affects the teaching and non-teaching staff cadres, is a recipe for crises; as such, it is not reflective of the remuneration accruing to the cadres.
“The contentious document, curiously, unjustifiably and unacceptably elongates the career progression steps of the lecturer cadre from a 7-step to a 9-step career development cadre and, at the same time, added an extra year for promotion to the final two levels.
“This implies that anyone on the lecturer cadre will now endure a minimum of 26 years from the base to the highest level.
“This is not acceptable, particularly in view of the fact that this deviates from the norm in other sub-sectors and that the retirement age in the sector remains unchanged,” Mr Osamudiamen said.
The Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr Salisu Umar, backed the lecturers’ protest of the new scheme and commended the national body of the polytechnic on their stand on the issue.
According to the rector, the new scheme will kill polytechnic education in the country. Hence, it should be suspended.
“My challenge in all of this is the way the polytechnic is been downgraded and relegated to the background.
“For instance, it takes a maximum of 18 years for a university lecturer to become a professor, but in the polytechnic, it takes a minimum of 18 years to become a chief lecturer.
“The polytechnic lecturers have been made to play the third fiddle and not even the second fiddle.
“I want to say that the new scheme of service is faulty and fraught with lots of irregularities and should be thrown away,” Mr Umar said.
Mr Umar said that the body of polytechnic rectors was not in tune with the provisions of the new scheme.
“We had thought the scheme was a good one until we took a critical look at the provisions,” he said.
The rector, however, urged ASUP to remain peaceful with the way they go about protesting for the suspension of the new scheme of service.