Ululations over the Academic Staff Union of
Universities, ASUU, calling off its five-month-
old strike have overtaken the damage the long-
drawn dispute has done to education.
How do we ensure that in the new year,
another ASUU strike does not occur?
What appears to be important is the fact that
the lecturers are returning to the classrooms.
Government is relieved that it has stopped the
embarrassing headlines of universities that
have lost five months of academic activities
while haggling over a 2009 agreement.
How important is education to the authorities?
How would the lost learning time be
recovered? What is the quality of certificates
the students would obtain after the long
absence from school?
ASUU’s refusal to call off the strike until
government produced proof of depositing the
money to meet its demands in the Central Bank
is another chapter in government’s relations
with ASUU. Other labour unions would adopt
the same measures in resolving own issues.
Government has failed to gain the trust of
labour unions. When the Academic Staff
Union Polytechnics, ASUP, went on strike,
government did not speak to the union for
three months. The issue remains partially
resolved. Governments sign agreements with
no intention of keeping them. The disputed
2009 agreement is due for re-negotiation, yet it
has not been implemented.
Our governments should change their policies
of planning for immediate needs. ASUU is not
the only labour union in education. Its strike
that took so long to resolve is not the major
challenge education faces.
At the foundational levels, challenges with
number and quality of teachers, teaching aids,
classroom space, learning environment, and
curriculum persist. The thinking that once the
universities are open, education is on the
proper ken is deceptive. Higher education is at
most vacuous when foundations at the
primary and secondary school levels are
ignored.
Governments urgently need to address these
issues as well as the bureaucracies in
education. They are wasteful; savings from
emerging them could release funds for core
education.
What are governments’ plans beyond
depositing N200 billion to end the ASUU strike?
How would they tackle sustainable funding to
stem another wave of strikes next year? Would
governments ever consider education
important enough that it should run without
disruptions?
Thousands of conferences held annually on
the future of education are mere talk sessions
that hardly improve education. When will the
changes be made? Do governments require
strikes to realise the importance of education?
What are governments’ plans for education?
Unions, which always consider the welfare of
their members as a first charge, cannot
determine the future of education.
Governments should provide sustainable
means for funding education, not to avoid
strikes, but to underline the importance of
education.

Hmmm