The University of Ibadan has announced the resumption date for academic activities following the suspension of a three-month-old strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The university management in a statement signed by the Vice Chancellor, Idowu Olayinka announced February 14, as resumption date for its students.
However, academic activities will resume officially on Feb. 18th.
The statement reads: “Following the suspension of the strike action embarked upon by the ASUU, we wish to advise our students to plan to return to the university as from Thursday, 14th February 2019.
“This would enable those whose voting centres are located within the university to exercise their civic responsibilities on election days.
“On the issue of resumption day for academic activities as directed by the ASUU President, the University of Ibadan management have scheduled to re-commence on Monday, February 18, 2019.
“A revised Academic Calendar for the rest of the 2017/2018 session is being drawn up and will be circulated shortly.
“We wish all those that will be traveling from far and near to Ibadan safe trips.”
The Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan, UI, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka has identified inadequate funding as the main problem confronting higher education in Nigeria, stressing that government must properly fund universities to be globally competitive.
Olayinka who stated this on MITV said that quality education comes with sufficient cash adding, “What stops UI from recruiting a Professor of Mechanical Engineering from Harvard University to come and be teaching our students in Ibadan? But can we pay his salary?
Will he be willing to come and be contending with all these money-induced incessant strike? What makes a world-class university is the quality of human resources.
How many foreign lecturers and foreign students can Nigerian universities attract with our poor infrastructure and conditions? I think we need to invest heavily in education if we must be globally competitive”.
Also identifying the problems of access and quality, Olayinka pointed out that public universities were the most heavily subscribed options by the teeming candidates over state and privately owned universities because of cost, but regretted that public universities lacked adequate space to accommodate all the candidates.
According to him, “10,000 candidates applied to study Medicine and Surgery in UI, but we can only admit 150 because of space, we would have loved to admit more than 150 but because we don’t want to compromise the quality that we are producing. If there is money, we can expand the scope, build more hostels and classrooms”.
On the incessant strike rocking the sector, Olayinka linked the problem to the same issue of funding, noting that the staff members became restful because the salary was “amputated “, maintaining that this is one of the reasons Nigerian youth run to Ghana and other neighbouring countries to study.
The UI vice chancellor argued that most of the foreign universities being attended by Nigerian youths were not relatively better than Nigerian universities, but because “there is a stable academic calendar over there, they attract our youth who want to complete their studies on record time.
He noted that the public primary and secondary schools have virtually collapsed in the country because they were not well taken-care of, hence, many parents now send their children to private primary and secondary schools.
Prof. Olayinka insisted that education was not cheap as someone has to pick up the bills, thereby calling on all stakeholders to join hands in order to save education sector.
Olayinka who stated this on MITV said that quality education comes with sufficient cash adding, “What stops UI from recruiting a Professor of Mechanical Engineering from Harvard University to come and be teaching our students in Ibadan? But can we pay his salary?
Will he be willing to come and be contending with all these money-induced incessant strike? What makes a world-class university is the quality of human resources.
How many foreign lecturers and foreign students can Nigerian universities attract with our poor infrastructure and conditions? I think we need to invest heavily in education if we must be globally competitive”.
Also identifying the problems of access and quality, Olayinka pointed out that public universities were the most heavily subscribed options by the teeming candidates over state and privately owned universities because of cost, but regretted that public universities lacked adequate space to accommodate all the candidates.
According to him, “10,000 candidates applied to study Medicine and Surgery in UI, but we can only admit 150 because of space, we would have loved to admit more than 150 but because we don’t want to compromise the quality that we are producing. If there is money, we can expand the scope, build more hostels and classrooms”.
On the incessant strike rocking the sector, Olayinka linked the problem to the same issue of funding, noting that the staff members became restful because the salary was “amputated “, maintaining that this is one of the reasons Nigerian youth run to Ghana and other neighbouring countries to study.
The UI vice chancellor argued that most of the foreign universities being attended by Nigerian youths were not relatively better than Nigerian universities, but because “there is a stable academic calendar over there, they attract our youth who want to complete their studies on record time.
He noted that the public primary and secondary schools have virtually collapsed in the country because they were not well taken-care of, hence, many parents now send their children to private primary and secondary schools.
Prof. Olayinka insisted that education was not cheap as someone has to pick up the bills, thereby calling on all stakeholders to join hands in order to save education sector.
The University of Ibadan on Monday have been shut down by the school management following a protest over the issuance of students’ identity cards before the first semester examination and also the lack of electric-powered cooking appliance in the hostels.
At a congress called by the Student’s Union on Saturday, resolutions passed included an ultimatum to the school authority to constitute the Students Welfare Board and set up a committee to look into the issue of the use of electric-powered cooking appliances in the school hostels.
The Vice Chancellor of the school, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, said that the closure followed a protest by the students and to avert a breakdown of peace on campus.
Undergraduate students of the institution were advised to vacate the campus by 6pm on Monday while the first semester examination, earlier scheduled to commence in June, has been moved to July 17.
The students took over the busy Mokola-Ojoo road, causing a gridlock while calling on the school authority to accede to their demands.
In response to the congress, a statement from the school management on Sunday however stated that contrary to the students’ claim that their requests were not taken seriously, the school authority had addressed the demands and appealed to the students to be calm and shelve the protest.
The statement read,
“The expanded management of the university met with the leadership of the Students’ Union on May 28, 2017. The meeting is sequel to the resolutions passed at the Students’ Union Congress that was held on May 27, 2017. The management called the meeting in the interest of peace and the wellbeing of our students.
“The management wishes to inform students that efforts are currently being made to ensure that identity cards are produced and distributed starting from the middle of June.”
“The problem of the use of unauthorized cooking appliances in the halls is not new. Indeed, at a meeting between the university management and the students sometimes in 2014, it was agreed that cooking appliances, especially hotplates, be abolished in the halls of residence because of the huge cost of electricity to the university.
Besides, the non-use of these cooking appliances is part of the agreement signed by each student before residency in the halls.”
Source
Punch
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