The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics has faulted a document, titled: “Schemes of Service for Polytechnics,” released by the National Board for Technical Education.
Shammah Kpanja, ASUP President, said this at the end of the 110th National Executive Council meeting of the union.
Addressing newsmen after the meeting in Abuja on Friday, Kpanja said the scheme contained significant and fundamental deviations from the document prepared by stakeholders in the sector and coordinated through a series of consultative engagements by the NBTE for over six years.
He said the NEC faulted the document and called on NBTE to suspend the implementation of the contentious provisions in the scheme that fell short of expected standards.
He said: “Our Union is hereby issuing a 15-day ultimatum to proprietors of all public polytechnics, for the owners of the document, the NBTE, to suspend implementation of the identified provisions until the requisite amendments are effected.
“The ultimatum is with effect from 8th of July 2024.
“At the expiration of the 15-day ultimatum, the Union’s NEC will reconvene to decide a specific and legitimate course of action to address the issue.”
Kpanja noted that the document released by the NBTE on June 19 in Kaduna State gave rise to significant and contentious alterations, which are legally questionable.
Specifically, he said the role assigned to the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation as an approving authority is challengeable.
He said: “This assertion is underlined by the provisions of Section 3 (1) of the Federal Polytechnics Act amended in 2019 where Governing Councils are established for each Polytechnic as body corporates with perpetual succession and common seal.”
The ASUP president added that the status of polytechnics is settled in law by rulings of the National Industrial Court.
He said the Governing Councils were the employers of members of staff in the polytechnics and the Federal Executive Council had also underlined the same in its recent letter of December 18, 2023, referenced, CM1/5.II/1/304.
Kpanja noted that the OHSCF was excluded from any role in the employment of staff members in tertiary institutions.
He said: “Our conviction is that the OHCSF cannot be preparing or approving a document on career development of staff members, including assessment of such staffers for career growth, when she is neither an employer nor regulator.
“The status of Nigerian polytechnics is again brought to question by this controversial document.
“The tertiary educational institution status of polytechnics is settled in different laws and policy instruments.
“The introduction of sub-tertiary level qualifications like in this instance the National Skills Qualifications as mandatory conditions for academic staff career growth is a misnomer.
“The possession of NSQ has no meaningful contribution to the delivery of the contents of the curricula of the different programs offered at the tertiary education level in polytechnics.
“The unwholesome and condemnable discrimination against holders of Higher National Diploma Certificates as against holders of Bachelor’s Degrees from Universities is further entrenched in the document.”
Kpanja noted that several provisions in the controversial document eroded gains made in the union’s battle against the condemnable act
According to him: “It is evident in the provision of discriminatory entry points into the Lecturer cadre for Degree holders and HND holders, lowering the career progression bar of holders of HND both in the teaching and non-teaching cadres.
“It is also evident in the discrimination against holders of HND in the appointment of Registrars and Bursars, irrespective of their possession of higher level certificates; classification of technologists as non-teaching staff.”
The ASUP chairman, however, assured that polytechnics would not discriminate against its products in the manner prescribed in the document.