The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, has threatened to embark on indefinite strike action over alleged imposition of a defective scheme of service for polytechnics by the National Board of Technical Education, NBTE.
ASUP stressed that the document was defective and contentious, handing NBTE a 15-day ultimatum to review the entire document that does not support growth of polytechnic education in the nation.
Addressing newsmen at the end of the meeting today, the Zonal Coordinator of ASUP Zone D, Iloma Richard, noted that the scheme of service for the polytechnics as released by NBTE contained fundamental deviations from the expectations of the stakeholders and staff members of polytechnics.
He particularly mentioned that the Scheme of service as released by NBTE introduced a sub-tertiary educational level qualification referred to as, National Skills Qualification (NQS) as a mandatory requirement for promotion of academic staff members,
He further said the document introduced discriminatory lowering of the entry point for employment of graduate assistants to the advantage of B.Sc holders, and unnecessarily split of senior lecturer cadre to 1 and 2.
Richard wondered why the NBTE disregarded stakeholder engagements on the documents and insisted on enforcing the new terms of service.
