Needs of varsities, polytechnics’ workers being addressed — FG

The federal government says workers in universities and polytechnics cannot go on strike again because all their needs are being addressed.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Andrew David Adejo, said this in Abuja Tuesday during an interview with journalists on the sideline of a two-day retreat for new rectors and other principal officers of polytechnics and colleges of technology.

“I think we’ve gotten beyond strikes in this country now. The government is addressing everything. The unions don’t just wake up again and say they’re going on strike so long the government is addressing their needs which the government is doing now. We’ve gone beyond strikes,” Adejo said.

According to him, the multi-faceted challenges facing polytechnics and the entire tertiary education in Nigeria require a governance structure with different layers of responsibility, hence the need for the retreat.

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He said: “The problem is us as Nigerians. If you take a survey around here now, people that have children, ask them, after secondary school, what do your children want to do? Close to 90% would say they want to go to university.

“Very few will say they want to go and learn handcrafts or entrepreneurship of skills. The market responds to a demand and the demands have to be created for Nigerians who want to go and be doing things that give them more readily available opportunities to make their own money than sitting down and be waiting for somebody somewhere to dictate how you make money.”