By Mercy Osajiugo
Minna – The College of Education Academic Staff Union (COASU), Niger branch, on Tuesday praised the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) for saving the state’s College of Education from collapse.
The Chairman of the union, Alhaji Haruna Baba, gave the commendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna on Saturday
Baba said that the fund had intervened by providing the college with needed infrastructure that had kept it running.
He said that since 2008, the state government had not provided the college with the infrastructure it needed to run its academic programmes
“The state government has abandoned this college, if not for TETFUND, we would have shut down for long.
“It was because of this long time neglect that we recently went on strike, but which we called off on Monday, July 24,’’ the chairman told NAN.
He said the union suspended the strike, with the expectation that the state government would keep to its promise.
“If the government renege on the recent agreement, we will go back on strike in August,’’ he added.
He said it was unfortunate that the college had to suffer severe neglect.
According to him, such neglect can be injurious to the development of education in the state.
Also speaking, the Secretary of union, Mohammed Isgogo, told NAN that one of the reasons that led the union to embark on strike was the non-payment of the 17 per cent and 15 per cent increase in the emolument of both the academic and non-academic staff respectively.
“We spoke to government about improving the infrastructure in the college for the excellent academic performance of the students.
“But we called off the strike in the best interest of the students, their parents and future of education in the state,’’Isgogo said. (NAN)