PETROLEUM and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, has expressed concern over the lingering industrial action by Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, which has crippled public university education since July 1, 2013.
PENGASSAN, in a statement by Seyi Gambo, its National Public Relations Officer, PRO, said: “Considering the enormous toll incessant strikes have had on the nation’s university education system, which, to say the least, has made the country’s best University today to rank only amongst the lowly rated 6,000 in the world while most of our graduates are simply ‘unemployable’, the nation’s scarce resources are routinely frittered away through unabated sleaze and in the face of endemic corruption at all levels of governance.
“PENGASSAN joins millions of concerned Nigerians and groups to appeal to the Suswam- led committee to sheath its sword by embracing dialogue as a means of finding a lasting solution to the recurring problem of underfunding of the nation’s education. This is so as education remains a major plank for sustainable development and veritable means of rediscovering the dream of the founding fathers of the nation.
“More worrisome for the majority of the talented youths whose sponsores cannot afford a private or foreign school, and have rested all hope in the public schools, now imagine the kind of future generation they are bound to build as they are turned out half-baked as a result of irregular and sandwiched sessions and curriculum. PENGASSAN cannot but frown at the degenerating government habit of reneging on agreements and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) freely entered into.”
