Lecturers warn Aregbesola against admission stoppage

The Council of Academic Staff Unions of Osun State-owned Tertiary Institutions has asked Governor Rauf Aregbesola to rescind his order directing the managements of the four tertiary institutions in the state to stop admission of students for the 2015/2016 academic session.

The union, in a letter written to the governor and a copy of which was made available to our correspondent in Osogbo on Monday by its Secretary, Mr. Olusegun Lana, said the managements of the Osun State Polytechnic in Iree and Esa Oke as well as the colleges of education in Ilesa and Ila Orangun had stopped admissions of students for the 2015/2016 academic session.

The lecturers’ union gave the government a 14-day ultimatum within which to withdraw the directive or be ready for a fresh industrial action.

The letter partly read, “The managements of the state-owned colleges of education (Ilesa and Ila-Orangun) and polytechnics (Iree and Esa-Oke) respectively have put the admission of students for the 2015/2016 academic session on hold under the guise of complying with a directive from the state government that admission must not be conducted in the next two years.

“Consequently, we are using this medium to demand that the government should come out clean on this issue and withdraw any directive stopping the admission within the next fourteen (14) days to prevent industrial crisis in the sector.”

The union described the alleged stoppage of admission as an attempt by the state government to stop admission into the schools, saying the action would eventually throw its members and other workers out of job.

It also said the stoppage of admission would affect the institutions’ reputation and cause litigation because the institutions had already advertised for the admission and collected application fees from prospective students.

“It will leave the large number of students under the preliminary programmes stranded as their chance of transition to Year 1 class is so abruptly nullified.

“It will open wide room for suspicion and speculation of clandestine move by government to scrap the institutions through the back-door and thus throw members of staff out of job,” the union added.

But the Consultant to the State Government on Information, Mr. Sunday Akere, when contacted said he was not aware of such a directive.

He said, “There was a meeting between the governor and the chairmen of the four institutions last Wednesday. I cannot say what the outcome of their meeting is but I will know that by tomorrow.”