The National Union of Polytechnic Employees (NUPE) has issued a 15-day ultimatum to the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the Federal Ministry of Education to suspend controversial revisions made to the Schemes of Service for Polytechnics.
According to NUPE Secretary General Lawani F. Jimoh, the union was presented with a new Schemes of Service document on June 19, 2024 that contained “very fundamental and serious deviations” from the collaborative review process undertaken by the NBTE and various stakeholders since 2018.
Jimoh stated that the new document “deepens in very unacceptable levels the discrimination against holders of the HND [Higher National Diploma] right in their own system; brings to ridicule the tertiary education status of Polytechnics; introduces unfriendly and unjustifiable extensions to career steps for staff; imports non formal education qualifications as mandatory conditions for career growth in a formal education setting; destroys work place relativity and fairness in career demands and growth between cadres; [and] unnecessarily expands the overhead funding demands of institutions.”
The NUPE National Executive Council has now issued a 15-day ultimatum, starting from July 8, 2024, for the NBTE and Federal Ministry of Education to suspend these “dubious provisions.” The union has planned a series of activities over the next 15 days, including nationwide chapter congresses, media engagements, and on-campus protests.
Jimoh emphasized that an emergency NEC meeting will be convened at the expiration of the ultimatum to design and initiate a “result driven industrial action” that may include a total strike, picketing of NBTE offices, and further protests until their demands are met.
“This is a clarion call to members to prepare for this struggle to defend our Polytechnics in the face of this unprovoked assault,” Jimoh concluded, reiterating the union’s slogans of “Aluta Continua” and “Victoria Ascerta.”