The Honourable Minister, Mallam Adamu Adamu assured College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), who are threatening to embark on industrial action, of government determination to meet their demands.
Mallam Adamu stated this during a meeting with key officials of the union led by the President, Mr. Nuhu Ogirima, in his office on Monday, November 20, 2017 in Abuja, to sort out grey areas of disagreement.
He said that issues such as the implementation of the Needs Assessment Report, which has been forwarded to the Office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation, will be implemented as soon as the feedback is received.
Speaking earlier, Mr. Nuhu Ogirima, President of the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), briefed the Minister on the reasons for their agitation, such as the non-implementation and payment of promotion arrears since 2012, non-consideration of the Report of the Inter-Ministerial committee on Autonomy for Colleges of Education to award degrees in addition to N.C.E, continuous shortfall and mutilated salaries; the non-implementation of CONTISS 15 in full; non-appointment of Governing Councils for Colleges of Education; as well as non-review of the laws establishing Colleges of Education (COE) and National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) amongst others.
He said that the Union has no option than to embark on industrial action to draw attention of government to the lingering issues.
Present at the meeting were the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Arch. Sonny Echono, the Executive Secretary, National University Commission (NUC), Professor E. S. Rasheed and the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) Dr. Abdullahi Bichi Baffa, and other Senior Management staff of the Ministry of Education.
Renate A. Amah
Principal Information Officer
