ASUU Strike: Losses Everywhere

When the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) proceeded on a nationwide strike in the Nigerian Universities, little did it know the effect that action would have on stakeholders. CHIBUNMA UKWU writes that the strike has brought losses innumerable losses to the stakeholders in the education sector and on the nation as well

Education is known to be the bed-rock of development. However, the education sector of the nation seems to be suffering more losses especially from the strike which has forced the doors of the Nigerian Universities to be closed down for over four months. Stakeholders however plead with the Union to consider calling off the strike stressing the damage it is causing both institutions as well as the nation.

In a program recently held by the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA), the Minister, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe represented by a Director of the Ministry, Mr Adeoye Boye pleaded with ASUU to call off the strike. Stressing the financial loss the strike is causing parents, the minister called on ASUU to end the strike.

In her words, she said, “I urge stakeholders to join in calling ASUU to open the university gates and make sure that the university gates are kept permanently opened and that there should be measures to prevent all these strikes so that parents and children do not suffer, especially those who cannot afford to send their children to a private university.”

Mrs Ochekpe is not the only one with this view. Also speaking on the effects of the strike, a Director with the Ministry of Education, who pleaded anonymity, opined that the strike is a loss on every side when viewed from every angle.
According to him, the losses as caused by the strike affect parents, students, lecturers and even the communities. Enlightening more on this, he said “Foremost, to the nation, there is loss of academic periods. Students who are supposed to graduate at a particular time will not graduate and because of that, we will have a backlog and others who are hoping to come in do not even know their fate now. And if eventually the ASUU decides to call of the strike, it will have accumulated lots of academic pressure both on the lecturers and on the students. Lots of workloads that should have been dispensed yet others are preparing to come in to the school.

On the part of the parents, it is a loss too. For example, the time students are wasting at home is a big loss to parents financially and otherwise. Another example is the case of students living outside the campus; assuming he paid his one-year rent, now that schools are still on strike, the landlord will hardly consider, let alone be lenient with the student.

There are students too who this strike may have provided opportunities to start going into negative vices because, as the saying goes, “an idle mind is the enemy’s workshop.”

Sharing the same view, a facilitator with the Centre for Learning, Disabilities and Audiology, Mr. Akinola Olabisi stated that even when the strike is called off, that there is every probability that it would have affected the quality of education students were meant to have.

Speaking further, he noted that the strike which has become constant in the nation’s tertiary institutions has affected presentations of school curriculums. He further acknowledged that part of the effects of strikes in tertiary institutions is the reasons university programs are abridged and this is the reason some lecturers do a shabby job in lecturing students.

Another stakeholder who just gave his name as Mr Clinton Obikwelu also has the same opinion. He stated that the strike is one of the factors that has led to the poor ranking of Nigerian tertiary institutions as well as produced what could be best referred to as half-baked graduates.

Underlining his points, he said, “Academic effect of ASUU strike on the students is very disastrous. The strike is one of the factors that had led to the poor ranking of tertiary institutions, resulting in the compression of academic calendar while also skipping some topics in the course outline.
Then students will write exams on what were not taught resulting in poor performance and decline in quality of education. All these will only help to produce half-baked graduates.”

Highlighting further the effects on the strike on students in particular, Mr. Obikwelu numerated the disasters to include what he terms as battered academic calendar, delay in various academic activities among others. He asserts
“Foremost, I would say that the strike has battered academic calendar. Our schools have lost a semester which cannot be made up for. Most schools were either in their second semester of the 2012/2013 session or were rounding up their first semester exams when the strike began. This will result in an abridged semester and most schools will finish their 2012/2013 session in 2014. What this implies is that those that wrote the 2013 UTME and will be offered admission (most schools have not released their admission list) might not resume until probably March next year (when another UTME will be on the way) This will inadvertently result in late resumption of the 2013/2014 academic session which is likely to finish early 2015 (provided ASUU does not embark on another strike action before then). Academic calendar is thus in tatters.

Secondly, there is delay in the release of admission list. It is pertinent to note that a lot of prospective University students do not know their fate regarding admission as a result of the strike. How about the cases of final year Law students? By the reason of this strike, they will no longer go to Law school until next October. 2012/2013 Final year Law students must be cursing down their throats as the strike has barred them from progressing to the Law school this year. When the dust of this strike settles, they will have to wait till next year October before they can go to the Law school. This is not the only problem because Law graduates of 2014 might not be able to go to the Law school till 2015. One year wasted! One might say two sets will be merged but those in the know will tell you that the Law school has a quota for each school. Are we seeing the imminent crises?

Furthermore, there will be fierce competition for 2014 NYSC batch ‘B’. As a result of this strike action, most public Universities (except probably UNILORIN) cannot present Students for November 2013,BATCH ‘C’ service year and with the look of things, public Universities might not be able to meet up with February 2014 BATCH ‘A’ Service year thus resulting in a fierce competition by students to be mobilised for service next year June BATCH ‘B’. What this means is that some students who were supposed to go for service in 2013 will be deferred to November, 2014 and some till February 2015. Are you calculating the time wasted?

Then for some students who started their projects, they might have to start all over in 2012/2013. Final year students who were working on their projects (Science-related) when the strike began might have to start again because the results obtained then might not be tenable again. This results to waste of scarce resources, time and energy. Thus, from every angle one would want to consider it, there are disasters everywhere, which have been caused by the strike.”

Giving his contribution, Country Director, Action Aid Nigeria, Dr Hussaini Abdu argues that ASUU ought not to be held responsible as being the cause of the problems for the misfortunes in the Nigerian Universities.
Emphasising his point, Dr Abdu drew attention to the credence that ASUU is part of the crises, it is not the cause. Speaking more on the alleged negative attitudes of students as caused by ASUU strike, he opined thus, “Of course, students are misbehaving but you still cannot attribute that to ASUU. Even if they are in school, there are students who will leave school and become armed robbers. Likewise, we have students, who from school will go and do prostitution; so the fact that they are staying at home is not what makes them start behaving badly.

I am a former University teacher so we know there are students who hang around. They stay around in the university for four years yet they do not even have a class. So we can’t just be responsible for all the negative attitudes of some students.”

Stating what he said is actually the cause of the mishaps; Dr. Abdu declared that decay in the tertiary institutions started when government failed to understand the strategy of the sector. According to him, We got it wrong when we failed to understand the strategy of the sector.

“I think there is a different perception of the sector that drives it and the moment government at all levels begins to say that we cannot provide for education that we need a private hand, the private sector to provide for education, that was when the crises started.

Secondly we did not have a good understanding of our demographic strength to actually say that our population is increasing and therefore, we need to have an increasing investment in education. Thus we got it wrong because we did not give education the strategic concern and actually be able to invest in it strategically. That was when our problem started,” He added.

However, proffering solutions to how best the crises in the education sector could be handled which includes the strike, he suggested the need for serious investment in the education sector.
“We need to invest in education and we can do that if we appreciate education as a strong social service provision. It is social because it has a collective character. It is not about them, it is about the society. The more educated the society is , the more we are able to fight poverty, the more you are able to create job as well as creating people who are committed to that society. So if you do not do that, you begin to have a problem. But if we appreciate the social character of education, then we will begin to invest in it socially that means that we can progressively increase our investment needs, we can deepen accountability needs both in schools and institutions.”

Supporting investment as a key solution to the matter, Governance Adviser, UNDP and Professor of Political Science, Prof. Sam Egwu acknowledged that due Investment as well as appropriate funding of the education sector is what it will take to keep the teachers in their campuses.

He said, “Actually, I do not think that the problem is the strike. The problem is doing the right thing. Yes, strike will have their damaging effects but what we do after in terms of responding to the various demands of academic staff in order to calm down nerves will be a major defining element in whether there will be improvements.

Again, it is important that having invested so much, there should also be a mechanism for evaluating and ensuring that the investments are utilised in the public interest and this is where checkmating the level of corruption is very important. I think we also need to take a philosophical position, meaning that we cannot abdicate the responsibilities we have as government and conclude that the private sector can be an answer to the crises in the education sector because beyond notions of efficiency, there are other important social values in education and it is in the interest of the government itself to take a lead role in funding education and monitoring the outcome in every stage. This for me, is the challenge that all of us need to address.”