COUNCIL OF ACADEMIC STAFF UNIONS OF OSUN STATE-OWNED TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS (CASUOSTI) LABOUR SIDE IN JOINT NEGOTIATING COUNCIL OF ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF POLYTECHNICS (ASUP) & COLLEGES OF EDUCATION ACADEMIC STAFF UNION (COEASU) Our Ref. CASUOSTI/15/02/15 Date: 21st December, 2015 Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, The Executive Governor, State of Osun, Bola Ige House, Osogbo. Mr. Governor Sir, STOPPAGE OF ADMISSION EXERCISE IN OSUN STATE-OWNED POLYTECHNICS AND COLLEGES OF EDUCATION: 14-DAY ULTIMATUM FOR REVERSION The Managements of the State-owned Colleges of Education (Ilesa and Ila- Orangun) and Polytechnics (Iree and Esa-Oke) respectively have put the admission of students for the 2015/2016 academic session on hold under the guise of complying with a directive from the State Government that admission must not be conducted in the next two years. With utmost respect, we believe you would recall that we raised this issue in our letter with reference no. CASUOSTI/15/02/14 dated 11th December, 2015. The confusion caused by the stoppage of the admission exercise has been complicated by the silence of Government on the said letter. Consequently, we are using this medium to demand that Government should come out straight on this issue and withdraw any directive stopping the admission exercise within the next fourteen (14) days to prevent industrial crisis in the sector. Going by the laws establishing the institutions, admission of students and other academic processes are under the purview of the Academic Board of each institution. Academic activities in tertiary institutions should not be administered by political intuition and intrusion, no matter how well-intentioned, without recourse to statutory regulations and institutional autonomy and sanctity. Apart from constituting flagrant breach of the law and institutional due process, any attempt by Government to stop the admission exercise in these schools, inter alia, is totally unacceptable because it: 1. hurts the institutions’ preparation towards the next accreditation exercise, which is due within the next few months; 2. impedes on the institutions’ community service roles; 3. leads to disqualification for interventionist opportunities such as provisions from TETFund which are tied to enrollment; 4. damages institutional reputation and leads to risk of litigation because these institutions have advertised the admission and collected application fees from would-be students; 5. will leave the large number of students under the preliminary programmes stranded as their chance of transition to Year 1 class is so abruptly nullified; 6. opens wide room for suspicion and speculation of clandestine move by Government to scrap the institutions through the back-door and thus throw staffers out of job; 7. is bound to cause about 50% cut in each institution’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by which Government is relieved of the running costs and payment of unconsolidated allowances of staff; 8. will leave the two State Polytechnics with no student at all and the two Colleges of Education with only the last one-thirds of their students, come October 2016. We remain confident in your belief in the rule of law and due process. It is therefore our hope that this issue and those raised in our preceding letter would be given prompt attention in the interest of all stakeholders in the State’s public tertiary education sector. We assure you of our best regards always. For and on behalf of ASUP (Iree and Esa-Oke chapters) and COEASU (Ilesa and Ila-Orangun chapters), Signed.