WE WONT CALL OFF STRIKE UNTILL OYO GOV ADDRESSES OUR DEMANDS _OYO COEASU
Staff of the Oyo State College of Education, Lanlate, have said that they would not call off the ongoing strike if the state government under the leadership of governor Seyi Makinde does not pay their salary arrears and attend to the lack of basic facilities in the school.
The college is one of the Oyo state-owned six tertiary institutions that have been on strike for the past four weeks. Chairman of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) in the school, Samuel Kolawole, said during an interview with journalists that the institution, which was established 20 years ago, does not have the necessary infrastructures that will encourage teaching and learning.
He stated that teaching and non-teaching staff of the school have not been paid their 12-month arrears accrued from consequential adjustment on minimum wage, adding that the school workers were the only group of civil servants in the state that are owed the said arrears. He also said that the state government has not paid arrears of promotions for 2011 to 2020.
Kolawole said: “We have informed the state governor during his one-day official visit to the college in February that the entire members of staff in the college are groaning in pains as the college management and governing council owe them arrears of annual increment for 2016 to 2021.
“We are the only institution in the state where 2020 promotion is yet to be implemented while 2021 promotion exercise is also yet to be completed as against what happens in other five tertiary institutions owned by the state. We also have unpaid 16 months arrears of hazard and medical allowances.
“Most members of staff in the college often sit under the trees as makeshift offices. There is no single toilet facility for staff and students, as everyone uses the bushes around as toilets. The students are also suffering because of inadequate lecture halls and there is no standard library in the college.”
He also lamented the non-accreditation of some of the courses in the college by the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), since 2016 when the college was granted autonomy, expressing the worry that the issuance of certificates to students who study the courses in the college might be considered illegal.
He appealed to the governor to give the school the same attention he is giving to Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso
