After ASUU …

THERE is a paradox governments have built
around education — they are spending billions
of Naira on education, yet the financial issues
around education are not being resolved. The
Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU,
strike is only one of many matters that are
dogging education.
Government’s supposed interests in
negotiating with ASUU, the speed being
applied, and the uttermost neglect of other
aspects of education confirm the diminishing
importance that governments attach to
education.
ASUU’s case is exceptional, in that
governments appeared concerned. When the
Academic Staff Union Polytechnics, ASUP,
went on strike, it took almost three months
before governments started talking to the
union. The issue remains partially resolved.
With the ASUU strike, the failure of
governments and their programmes are
obvious. Governments sign agreements they
do not intend to keep. ASUU is on strike over
a 2009 agreement. Governments want to re-
negotiating implementation of a four-year-old
agreement.
They also know that the negotiations for a
new agreement are due. We have governments
that plan for immediate needs, if they ever
do. They are exhausting themselves over ASUU
strike as if meeting ASUU’s demands would
resolve the challenges that our education
faces, among them irrelevant curricula.
How do governments spend billions of Naira
they budget annually for education?
Bureaucracy consumes the bulk of the money.
Duplication of agencies that manage education
is the biggest cost centre in our national
education management. Governments are
running up new costs.
New higher institutions are being built with
emphases on physical structures.
Laboratories, libraries and research centres
that they require to be centres for meaningful
academic engagements are available in
inadequate numbers.
It is absurd that governments — the owners
of the universities — would need an ASUU
strike to determine the status of the facilities
in universities.
What plans do governments have for
education? How would they tackle sustainable
funding so that we are not soon back to
another wave of strikes in a matter of
months? Would governments ever consider
education important enough that it should
run without disruptions from strike?
There would be no easy solutions. Many of the
federal agencies on education just drain
resources that should have been invested in
improving learning facilities. States imitate
the federal waste, making education one of
governments’ biggest cost centres, without
commensurate value for the expenditures.
Governments can save costs by eliminating
duplication in the functions of education
agencies. There should be clearer lines about
the roles of governments at different levels of
education. The Federal Government should
not be dabbling into primary school
education.
Finally, the future of education is too
important to be left to haphazard funding.
Governments should provide resources for
education beyond ASUU’s demands.