ASCSN threatens to shut down Unity Schools over welfare
The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) have threatened to shut down the 110 Unity Colleges across the country in the next 21 days should the Federal Government fails to attend to the plights of its members in the school within the period.
The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) representing the workers vowed to order its members to start Trade Union actions in the schools within the next 21 days if no meeting is summoned by the Federal Ministry of Education to address welfare issues affecting its members.
The Secretary General of the union explained that there have been series of letters since 2023 to the Ministry to convene a meeting to address the workers plight without any response.
Given the ultimatum in a letter sent to the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja on Thursday, 23rd January 2025, ASCSN Secretary-General, Joshua Apebo, regretted that all efforts since 2023 to bring the management of the Federal Ministry of Education to the negotiating table to discuss welfare matters affecting its members in the 110 Unity Schools and the Federal Education Quality Assurance Service (FEQAS) throughout the country have been treated with contempt.
The union however warned that no further ultimatum would be given after the expiration of the current 21 days notice.
“Since all efforts to bring the Federal Ministry of Education to the dialogue table had been frustrated and as the National Leadership of the Association could no longer contain the restiveness of its members in the Unity Colleges and FEQAS, no further notice would be required after the expiration of the 21 days ultimatum issued on Thursday 23rd January 2025 before Trade Union actions start in the Unity Schools and FEQAS,” Apebo said.
The union urged all stakeholders to prevail on the Federal Ministry of Education to embrace dialogue now instead of waiting for the industrial actions to start only for them to begin to plead with the union to sheath its swords.
According to the Union, the outstanding welfare issues include payment of promotion, salary, and elongation arrears; payment of allowance to Education Officers displaced from the Unity Schools in the North-East, payment of 1st 28 days in lieu of hotel accommodation as stipulated in the Public Service Rules.
Other demands include disarticulation of Junior Secondary Schools from the Senior Secondary Schools to create vacancies in the Directorate level, payment of transport allowance and DTA to FEQAS staff, and the need to drastically reduce exorbitant medical fees charged members of staff by the Health Management Organisation (HMO) appointed by the Federal Ministry of Education under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
“There are also issues of regularization of appointment of PTA teachers, implementation of the White Paper which stipulates that Units of the Association in the 110 Federal Unity Schools should be members of the School Based Management Committees (SBMCs) so that they could be part of the decision-making processes in the Schools, scholarship for children of Education Officers in Colleges where their parents teach in line with the directive of former President, Muhammadu Buhari,” stated the Secretary General.
He expressed that the union have consistently demanded from the Ministry, the resumption of Quarterly Meetings with the union where “welfare issues affecting members of the association in the headquarters of the Ministry, those in the 110 Federal Government Colleges, and those in FEQAS throughout the country can be discussed and resolved in the interest of industrial peace and harmony but all our gestures for dialogue have been rebuffed.”
