By Martin Paul
Abuja
Academic and non-academic staff in the nation’s tertiary education system, have been advised to eschew strikes, but use other methods to press home their demands.
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Registrar, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, said yesterday while monitoring the second day of the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Abuja that strike was destroying the future of citizens and the country.
“What I have been saying over and over again is anybody who loves this country and education should be against strike. I don‘t mean government should take academic staff or non-academic staff for granted, but it means we should find a way of solving our crisis not at the expense of the innocent ones, he said.
Oloyede, who disclosed that 440,000 candidates wrote the examination nationwide yesterday, stated, however, that unions were free to disagree with government, but not at the detriment of students.
It was learnt as a result of the strike embarked upon by staff of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomosho in Oyo state, candidates could not sit for the examination yesterday.
The registrar explained the candidates would be relocated to the University of Ilorin, adding that this had to be so because of no well equipped place for the Computer Based Test (CBT) in Ogbomosho.
“We understand that there is a sort of strike by either staff or students in LAUTECH, where we have two centers, arrangement have been made already to transfer the students because there are no private CBT centres in Ogbomosho and the closest place is Ilorin because of the proximity, we believe it is better than taking them to Ibadan or any other place in Oyo state.
The examination was monitored at Digital Bridge Institute, Global Distance Learning Institute, SASCON International Secretariat and JAMB CBT centre and its headquarters in Bwari, FCT.
