Will federal universities’ staff schools survive if the government stops their funding? This is the puzzle to which the workers are seeking an answer. To protect its members, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has taken up the fight for the government to continue funding the schools.
The association’s chapters nationwide have taken to the streets in protest. Tagging it a ploy to privatise the schools, they fear that it would lead to workers’ downsizing fee hike and hardship for the communities they serve.
Effect on workers
With the teachers on the same salary scale with universities’ non-academic staff, salary cuts, and or sack, would be inevitable if the plan sails through. Some of the schools have no fewer than 100 workers, while fees charged on the average is less than N10,000 per term.
Faulting the plan, Federal Universities Staff Schools Association of Nigeria, President Rev Chidi Nwakpa said the government would be throwing into the labour market highly qualified people who are productive – unlike many civil servants.
“You talked about the issue of the loss of jobs. All the dependants of those who will be affected would suffer. So I think it is a bad idea. The Federal Government should think about it and allow it. After all, how much is it? There are federal civil servants who are just there. They go to the office twice or thrice a month and still collect their salary. But these people are training the future generations of tomorrow. A lot of people that have passed through the staff schools are doctors, professors, lecturers and many other areas of life. Why must it be the staff schools that are singled out for this kind of punishment?
Chairman of SSANU, University of Ibadan chapter, Comrade Wale Akinremi added that the job loss would not only affect the teachers but the quality of education in the schools.
“If the school is run independently, it will lead to hike in fees and the staff strength will be downsized, which means that staff will be sacked and even the quality of education in the staff schools will be weak,” he said.
Describing the plan to privatise the schools as unfair to the workers, Nwakpa explained that many staff school teachers were interviewed like lecturers but posted to the staff school.
“We have the same qualifications as our colleagues in the university system. Some of us even have higher qualifications. We have those with Masters and PhD. We were all interviewed at the same time and then sent to the staff schools. We did not commit any crime to be posted to staff schools. The Federal Government should have a rethink. By the time they do that, there could be disharmony and problems and it would not be a good thing for our universities,” he said.
Lending credence to Nwakpa’s claim, Deacon Mbu Moses Mbu, Deputy Head Master (Administration), University of Calabar (UNICAL) Staff School, said the staff schools are regarded as extensions of the universities and their workers should continue being treated as such.
“The least teaching staff in this school has a first degree. We were employed same as those teaching in the university, because this school is an integral department of the University of Calabar. We are employed by NUC as our colleagues who are lecturers,” he said.
When it came to how much staff school workers earn, many interviewed declined talking about their salaries.
Volunteering some information, however, SSANU chairman, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) chapter, Comrade Ken Njoku, said teachers of the staff schools are engaged under the salary structure of universities on the same cadre of non academic members of staff.
He said the condition of service of the teachers would no longer be the same if the Federal Government removes them from the management of the university structure.
Giving specific figures, Mbu said salaries range between N84,000 and N300,000.
“A first-degree holder who is a starter here is placed on CONTISS 7. If it is step one, I think it is a minimum of N84,000. Also, it depends on how long the person has been here and his level. The highest is CONTISS 13, who goes home with almost N300,000 everything put together,” he said.
UNILAG SSANU Chairman Mr Adekola Adetomiwa added that salaries of the 82 teaching staff at the UNILAG Staff School range from N110,000 to N236,000 per month.
Effect on fees/universities
To sustain the kind of salaries they presently earn if privatised, Mbu said the staff schools would have to charge higher fees.
“You can imagine how high fees would be if the school is privatized,” he said.
However, increasing the fees would likely make it difficult for the schools to attract enough pupils given that they were set up to provide quality but affordable education for children of workers and members of the host communities of institutions. Another factor is their location – faraway from city centres where many of the upwardly mobile who can afford the fees reside.
Underscoring this point, Njoku said removing the schools from the universities would lead to fee hike beyond the reach of average university worker.
“Now you know that most universities are separated from the city centres in many places. They are far from cities. And now you have these schools specially for them and the immediate environment where they are located and it is subsidized.
“Talking about the schools running themselves would mean making education beyond the reach of parents, just like in the private schools where they charge a lot of money. If you say it should be independent, it would mean a hike in school fees and that would mean a lot of children would not have the opportunity of going to school. It would come at a high price,” he said.
Save for a development levy of N5,000, Adetomiwa said children of the workers do not pay fees at the UNILAG Staff School. Outsiders pay N25,000 per term. With privatisation, he said the fees would be unaffordable.
He said: “The primary schools are funded by the federal government, 100 per cent, both in recurrent and capital expenditure. That is SSANU’s agreement with the government. But for the International School, UNILAG (ISL), the recurrent expenditure is borne by parents, according to our agreement with them, while the capital expenditure is funded by the government.
“In secondary school, outsiders pay N150, 000, lecturers that have children pay N45,000 and retired staff members pay N125,000, which is 75 per cent of the school fees.
“ISL can run on its own. But the Staff School is completely funded by the government. They do not pay any fees but the development levy of N5,000 for the staff with children there, while outsiders pay N25,000, each per term.
“The issues to consider is that now, the staff are not really paying fees, but if the privitisation takes place, this benefit enjoyed by the staff would be eliminated and they would be paying the same amount as outsiders. That means that the staff school, which is the primary school, staffs would pay close to N30, 000.”
Another argument the workers are putting up against the privatization of staff schools is that their role as demonstration laboratories for education faculties would end.
Without such Federal Government funding, they would die, said UI SSANU chair, Akinremi.
“No university staff schools can stand on its own. It was established by the university council to also serve as a laboratory for student of faculty of education,” he said.
A senior member of staff of the UNILAG Staff School (names withheld), told The Nation that it would be a great loss to students studying education in the university.
“The staff school serves as a demonstration laboratory for students of the faculty of education, which is an integral part of their degree. Hence, separating the schools from the universities would deter the system,” the source said.
Effect on the schools: The NINLAN case study
Njoku warns that if Federal Government’s plans sail through, many staff schools “most of the schools may be forced to close down”, arguing that they would not break even.
Mr. Adibe Chukwudi, Principal of the National Institute of Nigerian Languages (NINLAN) Demonstration Secondary School, New Umuahia road, Aba, Abia State, understands what Njoku is talking about as his school is facing difficulties without government funding.
Though owned by the Federal Government, NINLAN Staff School has been funded by the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the institute in the past 15 years, which is grossly inadequate.
Speaking on behalf of the principal, Dr I. J Amajuoyi, the Vice principal of the school, said that the fees charged (N30, 000 as boarding fees and N35, 000 as tuition fees per term) is inadequate to cater for 54 teaching and 26 non-teaching staff on its pay roll.
With the difficulties in running the school, he said it would be better the Federal Government continues funding staff school. He also appealed to the government to take over funding of the school like in the past so it can expand facilities and pay better wages.
He said: “I don’t subscribe to the running of the school through IGR because the IGR is not really carrying the school. For a very long time, we have been static. There has not been any form of promotion. Some of the legitimate demands of the staff have not been met because we have always been told that the school doesn’t have money. If we say, let us increase the fees in such a way that it will carry some of our demands, most students will drop out.
“Our members of staff have also developed themselves such that you have people with higher degrees, but what you are paid at the end of the month is not commensurate with the present qualification. If I should tell you my salary as a doctorate degree holder, you will be shocked.
“To further tell you the need for federal government to take over this place, as it stands now, all of us; both old and new staff are placed on the same salary. The only difference for people like me that have put 19 years in this job with the ones newly employed is just one step with N2000:00 difference.
“My school in particular has been looking forward to the federal government taking over the running of the school because severally we have talked to the Executive Director of the main institute to integrate the staff of the administration secondary school into the institute’s pay roll because presently, we are paid from the IGR the school generates.
“Our school from the inception was part of the institute; we were pay rolled together until 2000 when we were separated from the institute with a separate salary structure being prepared for the secondary school and as years goes by, we seems to remain where we have been.
“We have been lobbying and talking to the executive director to reintegrate us because some Demonstration staff schools like Michael Okpara, University of Uyo, UNN, UNEC amongst others have been integrated. So our case here is very different. So, we are championing for the taking over the running of the school by the federal government”.
Head Teacher Lagos State University (LASU) Staff School Mrs Adeoloa Aribike, sees the government’s proposed action as a clarion call for universities staff school nationwide to resist what she fears might trickle down to state-owned universities if it eventually succeeds.
“What is the problem they have with us (teachers), what crime have we committed?” Aribike asked rhetorically.
“Is it not the same certificates that we have that people in other professions also have? We even have some of our colleagues doing their PhD yet prefer to stay put here. Now having put in many years into service, government suddenly woke up and said they should go. Does government want to be carrying corpses on the road?
Aribike a foundational member of the 28-year-old school, thanked LASU management for paying the salary of workers whose population she said, currently stands at 31. “Management also places workers’ salary with the same salary structure of the university,” she added.
