This Endless ASUP Strike

The hope of Nigerian
polytechnic  students going back to their schools to continue with their studies has continued to be dashed by failure of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) and the  Federal  Government to resolve issues that led to the on-going ASUP strike.
The polytechnic lectures embarked on industrial action over eight   months ago over non-implementation of agreements reached with the Federal  Government and lack of infrastructure  in the institutions.
To any  discerning mind, the agitation put forward by ASUP are legitimate  and reasonable. These demands are aimed at rescuing the polytechnic education from imminent  collapse. There is no gain saying that education is the engine room of national development. No country has attained enviable height economically and technologically without adequate attention and funds for the education sector.
The principal  aim of polytechnics in Nigeria is to turnout the middle level  man power needed for industrial and  technological development of the country, bearing in mind that no meaningful national development could be achieved without sound and qualitative  technical education. An expert  once posited that for any country to enjoy technical emancipation, they should engage  in polytechnic education.
Sadly, while other countries  are developing their technical sector, in Nigeria the sector has suffered  total  neglect over the years. Many  polytechnics in Nigeria are nothing but glorified  secondary  schools. The infrastructural decay is very alarming.
It is a known fact that in most polytechnics, just like other pubic tertiary institutions in Nigeria, students hang on windows to study, take lecture notes and write examinations due to inadequate infrastructures.  There  are either none  or poor hostel accommodations, books and laboratory equipment. In most polytechnics, libraries and laboratories are out dated, lecturers hardly receive research grants.
I find it difficult to understand why it is hard for government to fund technical education knowing the enormous benefit therein. The rate of youth unemployment soars  everyday. Thousands  of graduates parade  the streets  everyday with their degree certificates in search of unavailable white collars jobs. Crime rate continues to increase as  many jobless  youths are lured to crime. Are  these not enough reasons to fund and promote  technical  education which will empower  the youths to be self reliant and useful  to themselves and the society.
It is worrisome that polytechnic  education in Nigeria is being  treated  with disdain,  culminating into why their graduates  are regularly stigmatized in the labour market  and seen as mere educated illiterates. A situation where polytechnic graduates are looked  down upon because  of the discrepancies existing between B.Sc and HND certificates has contributed greatly to the undermining of this all important education sector of the country.
In most establishment, whether private or public, the discrimination exists  at the point of entry and during promotion, with no recourse to individual’s  talent  efficiencies.
As a matter of fact, some critics  think polytechnic  education should be scrapped. Many parents, guardians and even students seeking admission into higher institutions consider polytechnics only when they fail to gain  admission into universities. There is  therefore  need to redress  these anomalies in the interest of the nation. Government  should as a matter of urgency  bridge  the gap by adequately funding the polytechnic  as being  demanded by ASUP. All  tiers of government should contribute in funding education in Nigeria and spare us the endless tales  of woes in the sector. We should give  attention to polytechnic  and university education, knowing that  both are  very important and complement each other.
To further strengthen our polytechnics, there is need to look at the curriculum. Non-technical courses that are irrelevant to the core mandates of the institutions should be limited to the barest minimum to allow them maximize their capacity to train technicians, technologists and middle level managers. The National Board for Technical Education should review the curricula of polytechnics to make them go in tandem with modern day reality.
Most importantly, government at all levels should be more sensitive to the plights of workers. The welfare of workers should be the top priority of any responsible government. So, instead of being consumed with the politics of 2015 elections, government should expedite action to end the ASUP strike, just as ASUP should be considerate  and not insist that all their demands must be  met before  they go back to classrooms.
Calista Ezeaku