…laments non-release of 2012 Visitation Panels’ White Paper
The Senior Staff Union in Colleges of Education, Nigeria, SSUCOEN, has written an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, lamenting the shoddiness in constituting Visitation Panels for assessing the general administration, policies and needs of the Colleges across the country.
The open letter, dated February 15, 2021 and signed by the union’s President and National Secretary, Danladi Ali-Msheliza and Nwenyi Leo-Isioma respectively, also expressed their concerns over the non-release of White Paper on the 2012 Visitation Panels.
According to the union, the release of the 2012 White Paper will help the newly constituted Visitation Panel in carrying out its assignment, aimed at solving the problems and gaps in the general administration, infrastructure and funding needs of the Colleges.
While expressing their doubt in the newly constituted Visitation Panels, the union said the academics and administrators of the Colleges would have been in the best position to know the workings of the subsector.
“How would the Panels examine the quality of leadership of the Institutions in terms of the roles of Governing Councils, when there is no Council in place for Colleges (despite our continued agitations to constitute Governing Councils)?,” the union asked.
The union, therefore, called for the, “immediate release of the white paper/report on the last Visitation Panel to Colleges of Education, which is long overdue, and to implement its content, which will serve as a basis for the take-off of the Panels; douse tension and mitigate breakdown of industrial relations;
“Immediately constitute Governing Councils for Colleges of Education, for the smooth running of the institutions; and
“Inclusion of seasoned Academics & Administrators from Colleges of Education subsector, on the composition of the Visitation Panels to Colleges.”
