National President, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Comrade Usman Dutse, has raised the alarm that polytechnic education may collapse if nothing urgent is done to rescue it.
Dutse, who sent a Save-Our-Soul (SOS) message to the Federal Government, also enjoined union members to support their leaders to confront the challenges.
He spoke at the opening of the 88th National Executive Council, (NEC) meeting of the union at the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti.
He noted that the meeting was to review the challenges and chart the way forward for polytechnic education in Nigeria, urging stakeholders to continue to work together to ensure industrial peace in the sector.
In his welcome address, the out-going chairman of ASUP, Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, Comrade Tunji Owoeye, urged the union to fight for the establishment of a polytechnic Commission which, he said, would improve how polytechnics are run.
He said the government must demonstrate the political will to establish the body, like the universities, nomadic and primary commissions.
“The commission is a must and it is this generation of ASUP that should muster and exert all vehement solidarity towards any action declared by NEC at achieving it,” he said.
Owoeye praised the Polytechnic Rector, Dr Theresa Akande, for her understanding, saying the institution led in the full implementation of CONTISS 15 as well as the prompt promotion of workers.
Akande called on the Federal Government to implement the recommendations of the Needs Assessment carried out for the polytechnics some time ago “to enable a turnaround for the better for our polytechnics in the country.
“Our sector is facing unimaginable challenges which are threatening to drown our existence as polytechnics,” she lamented.
Urging the government to honour its agreements with the academic communities, Akande said proper funding and equipping of polytechnics would help reduce incessant unrest as well as improve the standard of education.
Source: Nation
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