College of Education teachers begin four-week warning strike over neglect of institutions, others

The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) on Saturday declared a four-week warning strike to protest Federal Government’s neglect of the institutions.

The union suspended its last strike in 2018.

The COEASU Secretary, North-West zone, Mr. Inuwa Ishaq-Inuwa, announced the commencement at a media briefing in Kano.

Ishaq-Inuwa, who is also the COEASU Chairman, Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, Kumbotso, Kano State, said the union was left with no option other than to resume the strike.

He added that the union’s national headquarters directed all state-owned Colleges of Education to join the strike and press home their local demands.

He recalled that COEASU suspended its strike in 2018 but resolved to continue with the strike four years over the lack of commitments by the governments to address the issues.

He said: “The Federal Government failed to constitute its own team for negotiations on the FGN-COEASU 2010 Agreement despite all entreaties.

“The non- implementation of the 2014 Needs assessment report, non-payment of outstanding promotion arrears from 2016 to date and the non-payment of responsibility allowance to Librarian in Colleges of Education are some of our demands.

“We are also protesting the poor funding of Colleges of Education, poor conditions of some state Colleges of Education, non-implementation of the consequential effect of CONTISS 15 on Lower Cadre and the Federal Government’s insistence on Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) instead of University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) that capture the peculiarity of tertiary institutions.”