Ex-education minister by the name of Prof. Tunde Adeniran has disclosed that the delivery of quality education has declined in Nigeria.
ASUU going on repeated strike
While criticising the Academic Staff Union of Universities for going on strike repeatedly, he thought that lately ASUU had come to be renowned more for strike actions than for other crucial roles that had led to its foundation.
The controversy was brought up by Adeniran, a former Nigerian ambassador to Germany, in chapter 3 of his recently released book, “Some Thoughts on Education in Nigeria,” on page 52.
He declared that the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ strikes had a significant impact on the quality of education in Nigeria and had become one of the system’s distinguishing traits and qualities.
Epileptic school calender
The fact that the school calendar is epileptic due to too many strike actions in the system is one of the irrefutable facts and causes of the perceived decline in educational standards and the provision of quality education.
“When students spend a lot of their allotted study time at home due to a teachers’ strike, their actual study time is frequently insufficient to meet the necessary exposure and concentration standards for high-calibre academic work.
Academic tasks are frequently neglected and hurried in an effort to make up for lost time. This has a negative impact on the products’ quality and their capacity to perform in their presumptive and assumed competency domains in the open market and at work.
ASUU and the Federal Government
He urged that ASUU discuss the subject of industrial action or strikes in order to address the issues and challenges in education.
According to jerrymusa.com the former minister also explained how the Nigerian Association of University Teachers was outlawed in 1976, which led to the creation of ASUU in 1978.
According to Adeniran, the former Nigerian Association of University Teachers, established in 1965, was renamed in 1978 as a result of the passage of Decree 19 of 1976, giving rise to the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
ASUU main role
As a trade union and advocacy group, ASUU’s main goals are to represent academic staff in universities, govern interactions between academic staff and their employers as well as among members, uphold a high standard of academic performance and professional conduct, establish fair and appropriate working conditions for its members, and defend and advance the socioeconomic and cultural interests of the country.
“From the foregoing, it is clear that the union must act as a powerful front for advocating for better protection of members’ welfare and advancement of the system’s overall interests.
However, it seems that recently, ASUU’s strike actions have gained more notoriety than the other crucial roles that led to its foundation.
Strike actions may affect crucial areas
It “does not require at this stage a rehash of the debates regarding the correctness, rightness, legitimacy, or otherwise of these strikes,” he asserts, for an appraisal of the dire status of education in Nigeria.
He claimed that well-intentioned Nigerians were mostly worried about how the strike actions would affect crucial areas including educational quality, the development of human capital, and public opinion of the educational system.
According to him, the ongoing strike actions by ASUU have had a significant detrimental impact from all perspectives.