The National President, Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Haruna Danjuma, has expressed dismay at extension of the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, by two months.
According to him, the continued strike would have serious devastative effect to the educational sector in the country.
The association wants the National Assembly and states Houses of Assembly to intervene in the matter by bringing back ASUU and the Federal Government in a round table to dialogue towards finding lasting solution to the problem.
He called on religious leaders and traditional title holders with other educational stakeholders, non-governmental organisations, UNICEF, UNESCO in the country towards finding an amicable way out of the problems in order to bring an end to the strike.
According to Danjuma, “We were hoping that at the end of the one month warning strike by ASUU, that both ASUU and the federal government would have come to an agreement, but it really unfortunate that ASUU is going on another two months strike. We strongly believed that it will affect our students and the standard of education in the country.”
He noted that adding months at home would have a serious consequences to the educational sector including economy, agriculture and other sectors in the country.
“We don’t want our children back home, we prefer seeing dialogue between ASUU and the Federal Government in order to ensure Frank talks that will quickly bring the whole problem to an end so that the country continue with sound educational policies that will be competitive with international community,” he explained.
According to him, the strike comes amidst the increased price of foodstuff, high cost of petroleum and general insecurity bedevilling peace stability in the country.
“We don’t want our children to spend three months at home because of strike. Ee are begging the federal government to as a matter of urgency go back and resolved their matter with ASUU so that the children can quickly go back to classes,” he added.