Tag Archives: LECTURERS

Yabatech lecturers vow to continue strike.

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The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, Yaba College of Technology chapter, has accused the management of the institution of short paying staff salary by 25 per cent.

The ASUP Chairman in the college, Adeyemi Aromolaran, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Thursday that for not receiving their full salary, the workers would not call off the strike.

The union had on February 10, begun an indefinite strike over non-payment of the balance of January salary by the college management.

Aromolaran said this was not the right time for the management of the institution to deny workers their full salary when the economy was biting hard.

According to him, for about 10 years now, workers’ salary are being paid by both Federal Government and the institution on 75 per cent and 25 per cent ratio, respectively.

“The Federal Government had in January paid 75 per cent of the salary while the school management is expected to pay the balance of 25 per cent.

“The balance, which represents various allowances, is yet to be paid by the management,” Mr. Aromolaran said.

He said the allowances were supposed to be paid from the internally generated revenue of the college.

Mr. Aromolaran said that the payment of the salary on the ratio of 75:25 by government and school management had been on for more than eight years.

According to him, the fractional payment policy has been on since the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

He also alleged that for more than 10 years, staff salaries and allowances have not been reviewed.

“This is not the right time to deny workers full payment of their salary. The economy is biting harder on the workers, particularly in Lagos State.

“We will not call off the strike until the management pay us our money, all academic activities will remain suspended,” Mr. Aromolaran told NAN.

He recalled that the union had similar experience in August 2016, but that after a protest, the Minister of Education intervened by directing that the allowance be paid.

“This time around, we will remain on strike until our full salary is paid. The management is trying to play pranks with the union.’’

He said that if it warrants waiting for President Muhammadu Buhari to return from vacation, the union would not suspend the strike.

 

Source: NAN

LAUTECH management, students resume as lecturers continue strike.

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Students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology have resumed for studies after a directive by the university management.

The school was closed in June last year as lecturers went on strike to demand payment of their salaries.

In a circular earlier distributed by management of LAUTECH and signed by Jacob Agboola, the school asked all academic and non-academic staff to resume on Friday.

PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported that lecturers had vowed not to resume Friday even when students resume.

By Friday morning, most lecturers did not resume.

Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES, chairman of ASUU, LAUTECH Chapter, Biodun Olaniran, said the Oyo and Osun state governments were not serious with ensuring full resumption of the school.

“The truth is that there have been no efforts to ensure that we resume; students who have resumed are only here to play and really we will not resume until our demands are met,” he said. “We have said until our demands are met, we will not resume and that is what we are doing today.”

“If the students stay in school for one or two weeks, I don’t know what they will be doing, until we get a directive from our national body after our demands have been met, we remain on strike.”

He said that lecturers received only a month salary out of the two months promised.

“We have received just one month with a promise to pay the remaining one month today or tomorrow,” Mr. Olaniran said. “Our demand is not about salary, even if we receive the alert , we will not call off the strike.”

One of the demands of ASUU is a letter of commitment from the owner states stating how the university would be funded and how salaries would be paid.

The Oyo government, speaking on behalf of its Osun counterpart, said it cannot write such letter.

Bolaji Afeez, senior assistant on youths and students affairs to the Oyo governor, said.

“We have met all the demands of ASUU and what they are doing now looks like it has a political undertone, if they are not comfortable with the way things are going, they should resign, is it a must to work there? There are many persons looking for same job,” he said.

“They are asking for a letter of commitment and we cannot write it, it is not their business to start asking how we want to fund the varsity, it is like asking the Chief Executive Officer of a company how he wants to run his company. Who does that?”

The public relations officer of LAUTECH, Lekan Fadeyi, told PREMIUM TIMES said “LAUTECH has ordered resumption, the date cannot change and management is trying to put things in place.”

 

Source: Premium Times

LAUTECH announces resumption, but lecturers vow to continue strike

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Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, has announced its resumption date, months after a strike by lecturers crippled academic activities in the school.

This is contained in an internal memorandum sent to all staff and students of the institution, and also made available on the University’s news portal.

“All staff and students are hereby informed that the University will reopen for normal activities on Friday, January 27, 2017,” the memo says.

It adds: “Students are to note the following for compliance: Friday, January 27: Resumption; Friday. February 3: Revision week ends; Friday. February 10: Lecture free week ends; Monday. February 13: 2015/2016 Harmattan Semester Examinations begin.”

The statement was signed by Jacob Agboola, the registrar of the university.

The school had been closed since June 2016. The governments Oyo and Osun recently paid N500 million for payment of outstanding workers’ salaries, prompting the resumption.

But the Academic Staff Union of Universities, LADOKE chapter, has vowed to continue with its strike until all key issues are resolved.

Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES shortly after the release of the circular informing students of resumption, ASUU chairman, Biodun Olaniran, said lecturers would not resume work except issues of funding are attended to.

Mr. Biodun said the Congress of ASUU remained on its earlier stance. He also said ASUU was not consulted before the resumption date was announced.

He said the Congress had agreed to wait till the visitation panel submits its reports and other welfare issues are attended to.

When asked what would be the fate of the students, the ASUU Chairman who had earlier hoped that the payment of N500 million would lead to reopening of the varsity said, “They(Students )should impress it on the government to do the needful by showing commitment to the funding of the University”.

 

Source: Premium Times

LASU promotes 17 lecturers

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The Governing Council of the Lagos State University, LASU, has approved the promotion of 17 lecturers in the institution as recommended by the Appointments and  Promotions Academic Committee.

 

The official bulletin of the university obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Lagos said the approval was given by the appointments and promotions committee.

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The bulletin said that a lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Patrick Adebuyi, was promoted from senior lecturer to associate professor.

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It said that seven other lecturers were promoted from lecturer two to lecturer one, while nine lecturers were promoted from assistant lecturer to lecturer two.?
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The bulletin stated that only three months promotion arrears would be paid to the promoted lecturers.

Nigeria’s private universities lack quality teachers, Professors say.

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A former Vice-Chancellor of Uthman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, Riskuwa Shehu, said private universities in Nigeria lack qualified academic and non-academic staff to offer quality education.

Mr. Shehu, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Ilorin said that most senior teaching staff in private universities were either employed on sabbatical, visiting or on adjunct basis.

He said such situation existed because the institutions had difficulty in attracting quality staff.

The professor of biochemistry, however, said private universities had more stable academic system because of governance structure.

According to him, they have more stable system compared to the public sector institutions.

He added that they were smaller in size in terms of demand for upkeep and maintenance of standard.

“The proprietors of such institutions have a way of reducing pressure from the workers of the institutions.

“Honestly speaking, you find out that the private institutions in this country are mostly driven by the workforce in the public sector,” he said.

Jude Udenta of Enugu State University of Science and Technology said private universities had bridged the admission gap for prospective and provided spaces but could not vouch for the quality of graduates.

“They have done well in absorbing myriad of admission seekers.

“However, I cannot clearly attest to their quality notwithstanding the number of first class students they produce since most of their students are those who get lower grades in JAMB exams,” he said.

Mr. Udenta, a professor of government and public administration, said most private universities depended on retired lecturers, ad-hoc lecturing staff or lecturers got from faith-based organisations since they could not pay their lecturers well.

“If you see any sound and young lecturer in there, it might be due to lack of job.

“The same lecturer definitely will leave anytime he gets an appointment in any public university due to minimal pay at the private universities,’’ he said

The professor added: “just few of them are coming into the academic sector with innovations to match the towering gap and academic excellence government-owned universities have attained so far over the years.’’

On her part, a professor of mass communication at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Kate Omenugha, said private universities were bridging the gap created by the inadequate number of spaces in public universities.

Ms. Omenugha, who is the Commissioner for Education in Anambra, said the quality of private universities was high since they operated on the guidelines of the Nigeria University Commission (NUC).

She advocated constant accreditation and reaccreditation by NUC to ensure that they conformed to the standards on which they were approved.

“It is purely personal, some of them are good, others are not too good but that also applies in the public university products.

“There is need to continually monitor the private universities through accreditation and reaccreditation to ensure that the standards are not compromised,” Ms. Omenugha said.

An undergraduate student at the Alhikmah University, Ilorin, Lydia Epelle-Oko, said the high school fees charged by private universities often discouraged many parents from sending their children to the institutions.

A parent, Rex Olawoye, said the exorbitant fees charged by private universities had adversely affected their students’ intake.

He said most parents preferred their children attending public universities to the private schools because of the low fees paid in the former.

Mr. Olawoye, a pharmacist, said few parents who sent their children to private universities did so because of their uninterrupted academic life.

“Despite this, however, admission into the private universities is still very low, chiefly because of high fee and fewer academic staff.

“I don’t think the quality of teaching at the private universities is lower than that of the public ones because lecturers at these private universities are eminently qualified,” he added.

An educationist, Samuel Adejobi, advised the federal government to exercise more control over private universities to promote academic excellence in the institutions.

Mr. Adejobi said the federal government must critically assess the performance of the private universities with a view to considering whether or not they were lifting admission burden from the public universities.

He said although private universities were expanding access to admission, the margin was slim because of the fees they charged.

“It is unfortunate that the proprietors of the institutions are mainly driven by monetary gains at the expense of quality and standard.

“Many of them lack proper structure for governance and administration,” he said.

Mr. Adejobi said that the private universities still faced challenges of attracting quality and experienced lecturers on permanent basis.

“Many of their senior lecturers are either visiting or on sabbatical,” he said.

ASUU Ends Warning Strike, Orders Lecturers Back To Class Wednesday

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The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Tuesday confirmed that it had ended its one week nationwide warning strike over the non-implementation of a 2009 agreement with the Federal Government.

The President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, who said this in Abuja, urged lecturers to return to work.

“We are making progress, especially with the intervention of the Senate. In the next one or two meetings, if we are able to get a clear path to the matter, we will avoid elongation of the strike action.

“I have been receiving these reports that ASUU says strike continues. No. The strike ends today (Tuesday). All lecturers are to go back to work Wednesday morning.”

According to him, ASUU was hopeful of a positive outcome, going by the response coming from the Federal Government.

Credit:

http://punchng.com/asuu-ends-warning-strike-orders-lecturers-back-class/

Sexual Harassment Bill: Lecturers Fire Back At Lawmakers

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Sexual harassment, as an act, is as old as man. But until recently, it was learnt, there was no law, in the country, specifically targeted at tackling the menace, which has remained a recurring decimal in virtually all universities’ campuses, without exception.o

Alarmed at the rate of the menace on campuses, the Senate recently, passed a Bill, which would in the thinking of the Senate, helped stem the tide of the menace.

But some lecturers think that the issue was being over-exaggerated, as such, they are asking the Nigerian lawmakers to concentrate their energies on other worthy ventures, and not mundane ones, like sexual harassment.

The Bill, known as the Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Education Institution Bill, prescribes a 5-year jail term for lecturers and educators convicted of sexual harassment of either their male or female students, just as it made provisions for a fine of N5 million, should the accused be convicted by a competent court of law.

And taking into cognisance, the fact that some students may just take advantage of the law, to raise false alarm, the Bill, it was further gathered, has also provided cover, for this category of lecturers, but not without a caveat. The caveat is that the lecturer, so falsely accused, must be acquitted by a competent court of law. Once that happens, the Student, who raised the false alarm “shall be expelled or suspended, as the University deems fit.”

According to the lecturer, Dr. Aniekan Brown, who is a Senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Uyo, the law was a case of vendetta from the Senate, against the academic community, since the Senate has not told Nigerians what constitutes sexual harassment.

“As we speak, officially, I don’t think that we have up 150,000 people who lecture in the Nigerian universities. And out of about 181 million Nigerians, the Senate, in the myriad of laws available for them to evolve, will target academic staff, something tells me there is something vendetta about that.

“Granted,   it is their responsibility to make laws; but I wished they had started with themselves, by beginning to query how much of harassment they have offered to women as Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria before getting to deal with some other Nigerians.

“I’m not saying that there may not be harassment here and there. It happens in banks; it happens everywhere.  But it shouldn’t be particularised to any sub-sector of the Nigerian economy; it should be full blown. But for them to zero in on the Nigerian lecturers, it means there is something personal about it. So, what happens if somebody doesn’t harass from the university, but begin to harass from the bank point of view, from church, from Senate, from mosque and every other place?

“So, when you sit back, you realise that it was myopic for them to want to close in on lecturers. In any case, I don’t expect any lecturer to fall prey to such a farce. And on the whole, I think the Senators would have thought of better things, instead of coming to deal with this minute issue,” Brown, said.

On her part, a female lecturer in the Communication Arts Department, Dr Nevelyn Bata, said there was need to be careful, because, some of the sexual harassment claims, students make, are spurious.

“But if the claims are verifiable, I think, there should be some restrictions to help bring down the incidences, if at all it exists. I’m saying if at all it exists because,  all the time I had stayed in the University  as a student,  I wasn’t  harassed.  So, when you hear of claims of lecturers harassing students, it sounds strange to those who never had the experience,” she added.

She said further that most of those who raise the alarm are those “who have issues, who don’t sit down to read; they have issues in their academics and when they fail they begin to cook up all stories. Well, for lecturers, who would condescend to harass students who they are old enough to be parents to, I think, the law should catch up with them.”

Like his colleague, Dr. Aniedi Ikpang, who is the Dean, Faculty of Law of the University of Uyo, also argued that there were more pressing things in the country that the National Assembly could have legislated on; since, by his own claim, he has never received any report or experienced any sexual harassment since becoming a lecturer more than 15 years ago.

Read More:

http://sunnewsonline.com/sexual-harassment-bill-lecturers-fire-back-at-lawmakers/

Lecturer who demands for sex from female students risk 5 years jail term – Senate

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A Bill for an Act to make provision for the prohibition and punishment of sexual harassment of students by lecturers in tertiary institutions has been passed into law.

The Bill which was sponsored by Senator Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta Central) and 57 other co-sponsors, was read for the first time on Wednesday 4th May, 2016.

The objective of the Bill is to prohibit the offence of sexual harassment in tertiary institutions and impose stiff penalties on perpetrators.

It also creates a strict liability offence by removing mutual consent as a defence in prosecution of sexual harassment cases, as it were in the extant laws.

The new Act when signed to law, will not only prohibit lecturers from having sexual intercourse with underage students; it will also punish lecturers who demand for sex from female students as a condition to giving passing grades.

Presenting the report on the Bill to the Senate on Thursday, the Committee chairman on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator David Umaru said the Bill enjoyed full supports of various stakeholders and civil society groups during public hearing.

As against the initial proposal of the sponsors of the Bill that any lecturer who harasses female student shall be liable to 3 years imprisonment; Senator Umaru said the clause has been amended.

“Any person who commits any of the acts specified in section 3 of this Act is guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be sentenced to imprisonment of up to 5 years but not less than 2 years and there shall be no option of fine”, the Bill reads.

It was, however, agreed upon presentation, that the penalty should be 5 years imprisonment or option of fine to the tune of N5m or both.

The Act also provides that the head of an institution upon receiving a written complaint of sexual harassment from a victim, shall set up a ‘Sexual Harassment Investigation Panel’ which shall submit its report in writing within 30 days.

The panel shall be headed by a non academic staff who is not less than the rank of Assistant Director, with 2 members of the Academic Union and 2 members of the Nigerian Bar Association.

UNIZIK Lecturers To Teach Igbo Language In China

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The Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, (UNIZIK) Awka, Prof Joseph Eberendu Ahaneku, has disclosed an ongoing arrangement that would allow people from the university to teach Igbo language and culture in Xiamen University, China.

He said the teaching of the local language would encourage knowledge sharing between the two institutions, with the teaching of Chinese language already in place in some tertiary institutions in the country.

Ahaneku disclosed this during the send-forth ceremony of 54 students of Confucius Institute of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, who bagged scholarships to study in different Chinese universities.

He urged the students to make best use of the opportunity, noting that the Chinese government would sponsor three of the awardees, while the Confucius Institute would train the rest.

He expressed satisfaction with the growth of the Confucius Institute in UNIZIK, where over 100 students have gained scholarship to study in China for various degrees.

It was learnt that 3000 students had already accessed Chinese Language Proficiency tests (HSK), while 400 students gained admission into top Chinese universities through scholarship platform of HANBAN.

The Vice Chancellor further said the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding had progressed smoothly as Chinese Language and Culture were taught at both Diploma and Degree levels in the university.

Addressing the students, the VC expressed joy that the efforts of the Institute have yielded positive results. He recalled his tenure as the Director of the Confucius Institute of the university for four years before rising to his current position of Vice Chancellor.

According to him, before now, the Confucius Institute existed only in Nnamdi Azikiwe University and University of Lagos but now, a new one is being developed at the Bayero University Kano.

It was learnt that the Chinese Cultural Research Centre of Nigeria was commissioned recently at UNIZIK by the Cultural Attachee of the Chinese Embassy in Abuja, Mr. Yan Xiang Dong.

The Vice Chancellor commended the centre and pleaded with the Chinese government to offer employment to graduates of the centre, who also have other skills acquired from their degree programmes.

According to him, without proper engagement, the graduates would feel disillusioned. He also challenged China to use the products of the centre as a base to solve the challenges of communication by offering them job in different Chinese companies.

“I look forward to this centre being used as a base for prospective knowledge and knowledge transfer; a base for prospective commercial and technological advancement and a base for true diplomatic Counselor relationship and as an extension of Chinese Embassy in Nigeria.”

The Director of the Chinese Cultural and Research Centre, Prof. Wang Bo, said the bilateral relationship between Nigeria and China has opened doors for commerce and economic exchange between the two countries.

Bo added: “Henceforth, our windows are wide open to accommodate all academia and researchers who may have China and Nigeria as their case study to come in and explore the opportunities here for their research work.”

The Chinese Attache and Director of China Cultural Centre in Nigeria, Mr. Yan Xiangdong, promised to support UNIZIK for the growth of the cultural centre domiciled in the institution.

Read More: dailytimes

Enugu State University Sacks 153 Lecturers

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THE authorities of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Enugu has sacked 153 lecturers from its employ.
Although no official reason was given for the exercise, but it was gathered that the sack, which also affected a Professor and a Reader cut across various departments in the university.

A statement announcing the sack dated November 23 and signed by the Registrar, Leonard Khama, and made available to Tribune Online, said: “I am directed to inform you and you are hereby
informed that the university is presently not
positioned to employ you.

“You should, therefore, hand over university property in your possession to the Head of Department. If, however, your services are required in the future by the university, you will be informed accordingly.”

Source: Tribune