The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities has said that the perennial attacks on schools and abduction of school children may worsen illiteracy in the country as many parents might withdraw their wards from school.
The union also said the abductions could add to the 13.5 million out-of-school children in the country and further threaten the education system which it described as the bedrock of national development.
SSANU in a communique issued at the end of its 40th National Executive Council meeting held from September 8-10, 2021 at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nasarawa State, by its National President, Mohammed Ibrahim, therefore, called on the Federal Government to urgently address the slide by strengthening the security agencies.
The university workers described the invasion of the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, as a national embarrassment and disgrace, “indicating a total collapse of the security architecture of the country.”
The union stated, “This dangerous dimension has forced several states to shut down schools in violence-prone areas. This will no doubt, add to the over 13.5million out-of-school children in Nigeria today.
“From all indications, this is a great threat to the educational system, bearing in mind that the economic growth of any nation directly depends on the level of her educational standard and stability.
“NEC, therefore, calls on the Federal Government to urgently stem this ugly tide by vigorously strengthening the security agencies to ensure effective tackling of this monstrous menace.”
The NEC- in-session flayed what it described as the shoddy and lopsided implementation of some core components of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, stressing that the Hazard and other Earned Allowances had yet to be fully implemented in the monthly salaries of its members as earlier agreed.
“Granted that implementation of the allowances has commenced, it is rather surprising that they are scandalously captured. Government is, therefore, earnestly urged to stabilize the mode of salary payment vide IPPIS and immediately commence the payment of hazard, responsibility, excess workload, overtime, and others alongside monthly salaries without further delay,” SSANU demanded.
The union further admonished the Federal and state governments to implement the National Minimum Wage and its accumulated arrears.
On the issue of re-negotiating the 2009 FGN/SSANU Agreement, NEC stated that it was briefed that the exercise would soon commence after it was halted last year as a result of COVID-19.
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