The governorship candidate of Alliance for Democracy in Ogun State, Oluseyi Gavriel Olufade Olowookere (OGO) has proffered solutions to the raging crisis between the lecturers of the Tai Solarin College of Education which had necessitated the later to write President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene.
He made his position known in a press statement he personally signed today.
According to him, the crisis which was triggered by nonpayment of salaries and arrears can be creatively solved in three stages.
Analyzing the issues involved, the governorship candidate said “Inherited arrears, nonpayment of full salaries and people dying for lack of medical attention or inability to cater for themselves constitute the problems.
As a first measure, he suggested the auditing of the financial issues involved after which a holistic solution would evolve.
Said he,” I think, first an audit should be carried out and then the government must begin to pay the full salaries immediately. This should give the staff succor as the festive period rolls in.
“Secondly, all government employees should have a compulsory medical insurance that can be partly funded by the government while a token is thoroughly discussed and agreed upon before being deducted from the employees of TASCE.
negotiate a payment plan for the arrears after due diligence adding, all these can happen within 3 to 6 months.
In order to effect a long-term solution to the problem of the institution occasioned by a perennial shortage of funds in our higher Institutions, he advocated the creation of what he described as “profitable revenue centers” with proper systems and processes using very simple technology.
“In terms of consulting, the teachers are the thought leaders, subject matter experts, scientists or researchers. The students and school can be research assistants or control trial groups and laboratories respectively. So rather than pay huge sums of monies to the private sector, the government can encourage a “public sector consult that is private sector driven or managed ” e.g. “TASCE consults Ltd” for example.
The faculties will be the resource persons or researchers and the tested research outcomes can then be used by the government or private sector. Also, the government can encourage the industries within the state to contribute to an education trust fund that can be used to fund and support research which the industries can also benefit from”. In addition, institutions of learning like TASCE should not be made to suffer this kind of travails. Already there is a dearth of skilled labour, resulting in the consequential effect of “low employability” of our youths.
Olufade however, promised that if voted into power next year, his government would tackle the apparent lack of technical skills through rejuvenating vocational training schools, accelerating STEM education model across all Local Governments and introduce technically enabled learning from primary schools.
All these better prepare our children and youth for Industries of the future or the fourth industrial revolution which is already here. They become employable and have better chances of being employers of labour themselves through the creation of SMEs or entrepreneurial hubs and ventures.
Olufade promised that Ogun State under AD leadership will become the Knowledge, Media and IT hub of Nigeria in less than 4 years.
