Some lecturers at the Federal Polytechnic Ede, Osun State have dissociated themselves from the position taken by Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic, ASUP on the status of the ongoing Computer Based Test examination in the school.
According to a statement signed by Ben Faustus, a member of concerned ASUP Members, the group insisted that the ongoing examination followed due process.
It would be recalled that ASUP had earlier insisted that the ongoing examination does not have its backing and that lecturers did not submit questions.
However, concerned ASUP members stated that the lecturers submitted questions and that conduct of the exam doesn’t need academic board’s approval.
Read their full statement; Arising from the ASUP EDE Congress held earlier today 3rd February, 2021 in which it was clear that the Union is divided along diverse lines, Concerned members of the Union wish to state emphatically as follows:
1. ASUP-EDE Chapter Executives should allow PEACE to reign at Federal Polytechnic Ede as nobody (not even the Union) is greater than the system.
2. The CBT Examination currently on-going at the Polytechnic is a continuous exercise and does not need the approval of Academic Board to continue. The First semester examination started on December 7th, 2020 and the Polytechnic went on COVID-19 break by 23rd December, 2020 leaving only the CBT examinations uncompleted. Prior to the break, lecturers had already submitted CBT questions as directed by a memo issued by the ICT Director, any lecturer who did not submit their CBT examination questions then should raise objections as to why he/she failed to do so.
3. The Union should know that it cannot declare strike in the middle of an on-going examination as doing such is clearly an attempt to incite the students into violence and thrown the Polytechnic community into unnecessary chaos.
4. Concerned members of ASUP WILLINGLY submitted themselves to invigilate the CBT examination which commenced on the 18th of January, 2021 and ended on the 3rd of February, 2021. The examination was peaceful and hitch free.
5. On the issue of DUAL Programme, ASUP is only misleading the public as the Federal Polytechnic Ede is running National Diploma programme using the ODFeL platform as approved by NBTE and 2016, 2018 Academic Board decision extracts. College of Education, Ilori is running NCE Programme. Students involved in this collaborative programme are the ones running DUAL programme in the same way as we have some Students of the Polytechnic running degree programme at different Universities while still pursuing either the ND or HND programme at the Polytechnic.
6. As members of Concerned ASUP-EDE Chapter, WE ARE NOT ON STRIKE and WILL NOT WITHDRAW OUR SERVICES from our employers.
7. ASUP should allow PEACE to reign in Federal Polytechnic Ede and should stop parading themselves as an opposition political party. Rather, they should find ways of solving its internal problems. ASUP should stop using money of members to damage the integrity of the system which is equally affecting the products graduated by the system. The interest of the system should be above that of any individuals including the Union. ASUP should remember that when the host dies the parasite will equally die with it.
8. Any staff that sits at home and collect salaries without doing the job for which they are paid should search their conscience as their actions amounts to gross CORRUPTION especially since the primary assignment of academic staff is to teach rather than struggle for positions of HODs and DEANS.
9. The ASUP Zonal Coordinator (Zone C) should stop derailing the ASUP-EDE Congress by supporting illegality. If academic activities were not suspended in his institution when the ASUP Chairman and Secretary were suspended (as evidenced in a publication of January 27th, 2021 in the NEW TELEGRAM), then little wonder why he is bent on disrupting academic activities at Federal Polytechnic Ede.
10. It is imperative that ASUP should stop using the future of innocent students as bargaining tools for actualization of personal vendetta cum interest. These students deserves better and ASUP should put the interest of the students above theirs.
