Metro Ex Education Minister Ezekwesili: How to Get Rid of ASUU Strikes

L

LequteMan

Guest
According to the former Education Minister, Obiageli Ezekwesili, the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, from the federal government are unrealistic with the current condition of the country.

Speaking with newsmen on Sunday, she said the lasting solution to the crisis bedeviling the education sector could only be found from strong analysis of the issues raised by ASUU and evidenced based policies.

“Money is not limitless and yet everyone must acknowledge that investment in education is crucial and it is key.

“There are, however, some fundamental reforms that the sector needs in order to ensure that it is not about the size of the funding but about the productivity of the funding.

“You cannot simply express a desire, it must be founded on reality and that means you must know what can be achieved within a given period,” she said.

The minister says a structural and policy change which allows public and private investments should be integrated into the university system.

She said she was a key member of the ASUU negotiation which started in 2007.

“Even though that period was short, one of the major issues for me was for us to make sure that we were being evidenced based in the way we were solving the problem,

“We considered issues like the existing model in countries similar to us in emerging economies,’’ she said and added that they also considered what could be done by the public and private sectors about university funding among others.

“Those are the kinds of evidence that we had and on the basis of which we hinged our negotiation at that time,

“It was a very short period and then we had to leave and the next government that took over had to continue.

“I do not know the basis of the final agreement they reached with ASUU, but if it was not anchored on analytical evidence, I am not surprised that there has been inability to implement it.”

She then called on both the Federal Government and ASUU to return to the negotiating table and work on the basis of analysis and evidence to find lasting solution to the dispute.
 

Attachments

  • oby ezek.jpg
    oby ezek.jpg
    4.3 KB · Views: 18
Unfortunately madam is not very good at providing answers. She is excellent at breaking down the questions and creating formulas, empirical or otherwise, but the answers... not her thing.

Maybe all questions about Nigeria are too difficult for all of us
 
Back
Top