Teachers in many of Nigeria’s 252 colleges of education may soon start attending classes only two days a week instead of five.
This follows a directive from the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) asking members to go to work twice a week in view of the current hike in petrol prices occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy.
Mr. Smart Olugbeko, president of COEASU, in a statement on Wednesday, said the union members could no longer survive on the current minimum wage.
Olugbeko said the directive followed the union’s extraordinary meeting held on Tuesday, July 18, 2023.
According to him, members of the union would not return to full work till the Federal Government agreed to COEASU’s demand of 200 percent increase in salary.
“The National leadership of our great Union in its extraordinary meeting held on Tuesday, 18th July 2023 had agreed to direct its members to go to work two days weekly until Federal Government yields to its demand of 200 percent increase in salary, amidst the difficulty of members to get to work as a result of hike in the price of petrol,” the statement read in part.
“The implementation of the removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government two months ago raised the price of a litre of petrol by 250%.
“This worsened the inflationary rate on the cost of transportation, food, and other essential commodities and impoverished the Nigerian people. Workers, including staff of Colleges of Education, kept faith with the government and chose to endure the untold hardship, thinking it would be only for a while, as the government promised to roll out palliative measures, including a significant increase in salaries.
“Alas! While our capabilities to sustain hope were already exhausted, the price of petrol rose further to N650 per litre. Now, the leadership of the Union has been inundated by members’ complaints that they could no longer go to work as a result of a hike in the price of petrol and the resultant high cost of transportation.”
The union issued the directive about 24 hours after the price per litre of petrol at fuel stations across the country, including those of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) went up from N500 to N617 per litre.
There are 152 colleges of education in Nigeria, consisting of 21 federal, 82 private, and 49 state colleges of education.
