- Colleges of Education seek review of IPPIS
The Senior Staff Union in Colleges of Education, Nigeria (SSUCOEN) has praised President Bola Tinubu for withdrawing the directive that tertiary institutions should remit 40 per cent of their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to the Federal Government.
SSUCOEN President Danladi Msheliza gave the commendation in a statement yesterday in Abuja.
The union urged President Tinubu to revisit past agreements in order to improve the quality of education in the country.
SSUCOEN expressed appreciation to the President for listening to diverse opinions and concerns raised about the gradual damage the 40 per cent deduction would do to the struggling tertiary education sub-sector due to paucity of funds.
Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman (SAN), had announced the cancellation of the policy when he represented President Tinubu at the 75th Founder’s Day ceremony of the University of Ibadan (UI).
The President, the Visitor to the university, pledged his commitment to the reform of the nation’s education sector as the bedrock for national development.
A leaked memorandum addressed to the heads of tertiary institutions recently by the government claimed that starting from this month, universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and monotechnics would have 40 per cent of the IGR deposited in their accounts deducted via the Treasury Single Account.
“SSUCOEN wants the government to leave the revenue generated internally alone and focus on strengthening and sustaining the country’s image,” the statement added.
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Also, the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has urged the Federal Government to review the centralisation of payroll administration through the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
In a statement yesterday in Abuja, COEASU President Smart Olugbeko said the policy undermined the statutory functions of the colleges’ governing councils, and breached the integrity of the tertiary education sub-sector.
The statement said: “We urge President Bola Tinubu to revisit the issue of IPPIS in the interest of justice and industrial harmony…
“We, therefore, commend Mr. President for his sensitivity and amiability on the matter. With this gesture of Mr. President, it seems to us that our union has eventually found a government that is compatible in disposition towards an alternative dispute resolution approach through constructive engagement, social dialogue and proactive bargaining characterised by mutual respect and pliability to superior logic.
“Nonetheless, we urge the President to go a step further by deploying this promising disposition to urgently address the challenges of funding in the college of education system and other tiers of the tertiary education sector altogether…”