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Bimbola Oyesola, [email protected]
Nigeria’s education sector may be under threat with the indiscriminate establishment of tertiary institutions by federal and state governments without consideration to funding.
This major concern was among serious issues raised at the just concluded eighth Quadrennial National Delegates’ Conference of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), held in Abuja.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the conference and jointly signed by the union’s President and General Secretary, Dr Makolo Hassan and Prince Peters Adeyemi, respectively, the conference faulted the indiscriminate passing of Bills for the establishment of tertiary institutions by the National and State Assemblies.
Members of the union at the conference lamented that the Federal and State Governments have not been able to adequately fund existing tertiary institutions in the country.
Calling for caution, the union warned that if the current trend of the indiscriminate establishment of institutions continues, it will erode the gains of having qualitative tertiary institutions in the country.
The union therefore charged both the National and State Assemblies to immediately discontinue the passing of bills for the establishment of tertiary institutions that may not be adequately funded.
The communique read, “The Conference-in-Session calls on the Federal and State Governments to put an end to indiscriminate establishment of tertiary institutions at the expense of the growth and development of the existing ones.”
On funding of private universities through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), NASU said it would be a misplacement of priority as the private institutions do not belong to the Federal Government.
Though noted that private Universities are contributing to the development of manpower in the country, but argued that the compelling reasons for the establishment of private Universities is rooted on profit.
According to NASU, this could be more exemplified by the exorbitant school fees they charge, hence government therefore has no business funding these institutions.
Maintaining that TETFund is a product of collective bargaining with the unions in the education sector, NASU’s “Conference-in- session therefore resolved, and calls on the Federal Government to dis-countenance any request and pressure coming from any quarters aimed at the utilization of public funds to finance private enterprises.”
Collective bargaining
On the issue of Collective Bargaining in tertiary education, teaching/specialist hospitals and research institutes sectors, NASU insisted that Collective Bargaining is a fundamental right, guaranteed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s Convention, 1949 (98), which sets out the terms and conditions of employment pay, benefits and working conditions; rooted in ILO Convention and affirmed as such in the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
The union expressed that disagreements between employers and employees is an everyday process, adding that collective bargaining is a key process of industrial relations, through which the conflicting interest of employers and employees are negotiated thereby pathing way for a smoother relation between them.
The union pointed out the obvious enormous advantages of collective bargaining in the furtherance of industrial peace and harmony in the workplace, as being witnessed in the private sector and the core civil service of Nigeria.
The conference expressed dismay over federal government’s inability to institutionalize Collective Bargaining in the Tertiary Education, Teaching/Specialist Hospitals and Research Institutes sectors of the public sector, noting that it is the major reason for the incessant strike actions prevalent in the sector.
As part of the resolutions, the union “calls on the Federal and State Governments to institutionalized Collective Bargaining in these sectors by establishing Negotiating Councils for the sectors as it has been done in the core civil service where the Federal Government has established Public Service Negotiating Councils 1, 2 and 3.”
Workers in private educational sector
Also of serious concern to the union is the worsening working conditions of workers in the private educational sector in the country.
The union at the conference said workers in the private educational sector are subjected to harsh working conditions due to the absence of unions and among others, thereby calling on the government to wield the strong arms of the law in these institutions.
The union emphasised that both the Nigerian Constitution and ILO’s Convention, guaranteed the right of every person to form and belong to any trade union of his or her choice.
“Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) guarantees the right of every person to form and belong to any trade union or Association for the protection of his/her interest. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 1948 (No. 87) safeguards the rights of Freedom of Association and the Right to Organize.
“The ILO Convention 1949 (No. 98) guarantees the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining. The Nigeria Trade Unions Act (as amended) guarantees the right of recognition of a Trade Union by an employer,” the communique stated.
Despite these laws and conventions, members of NASU lamented that “employees in this private educational institutions are denied the right to join unions by the Managements of these institutions.”
The union said efforts to unionize workers in privately-owned educational institutions, notably Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education have been thwarted by managements of these Institutions.
It however called on the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, in its role as the regulator of industrial relations, to ensure that managements’ of these institutions comply with the provision of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Trade Union Act, and International Conventions relating to this matter.
In the same vein, members at the conference mandated the Secretariat of the union to take all administrative and legal actions aimed at unionizing potential members of the union in those private institutions.
