Oko Poly: ASUP, School Management at Loggerheads

www.odogwublog.com reports that the impasse between the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, Oko chapter and the school management

has taken a new turn following fresh allegations leveled against the management by the union.

In a petition signed by Godson Okeoma, chairman of ASUP, Oko Poly, the union alleged that the students who were awarded diploma certificates from 2012/2013 session were not potential graduates because of inappropriate curricular activities and examination conduct.

In their petition to the Honorable Minister of Education copied to President Jonathan and National President of ASUP among others, ASUP accused the management of gross misconduct and flagrant abuse of academic standards in the polytechnic as evidenced in the sorry state of students' results, alleging that universities like UNIZ1K now had a policy that graduates of Oko Poly would no longer be offered either direct entry or PGD admissions.

According to the union, the Computer Based Test (CBT) had lapses when it was first introduced in the department of Public Administration. It said that their efforts to convince the management fell on deaf ears, alleging that they were instead intimidated.

They also accused the management of their absence in the governing council of the Polytechnic. The Poly's host community, Oko, and ASUP have no representatives since 2013 when the governing council was constituted.

ASUP   further claimed   in the ­petition that the Rector is nursing a subtle plan to move some faculties to his home town in Ezira, Orumba South LGA.       

    

Reacting to these allegations to newsmen, the Public Relations Officer of the polytechnic, Mr. Obini Onuchukwu, expressed dismay at the issues raised in the petition. He said that the administrative highhandedness alleged by the union was completely baseless. He said the rector. Prof. Godwin Onu, on the contrary was the best rector the polytechnic had had in the past; transforming the dilapidated state of the institution he met, selling up over 20 new structures and clearing backlogs of staff promotion, conversion and upgrading.

Obini said that the rector made discipline the watchword of his administration when he assumed office in 2010 and also attracted the TETFUND projects to the school.

Addressing specific issues raised in the petition, he said that the approval of the Computer Based Test (CBT) Examination did not even come from the rector but from the academic board; adding that it was part of the federal government's initiatives for 2020 vision. He also said that the regulatory body of all polytechnics in Nigeria, N13TE, not only gave their blessing but also sent them a congratulatory message for the initiatives and the lead in running CBT.

He said that more than five institutions had taken up the same initiatives including Enugu State University (ESUT).

He argued that being an era of digital technology; the CBT would help reduce the way students were being harassed by some of their lecturers. He also said that the economic importance of the CBT would help reduce the cost of producing answer papers thereby creating room for the growth of computer literacy in the school.

“CBT is the best thing that has ever happened to the institution; with the CBT, we have speed of delivery, and we no longer buy papers or print heavily. Students and their guardians can also have easy access to the results of their wards,' Mr. Onuchukwu explained.

In reaction to the petition about the rector's subtle plan to move some faculties to his home town, Ezira, Mr. Onuchukwu said that the allegation was false adding that the rector's powers limited him from carrying such an act.

He disclosed that it was only the federal legislation that had such powers to decide the fate of the school and the location.