The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has rejected the deduction of 40 per cent from the internally generated revenue (IGR) of tertiary institutions in the country.
The union urged the government to exclude colleges of education from the implementation of the policy.
COEASU President Smart Olugbeko conveyed the union’s position in a statement yesterday in Abuja.
The policy of 40 per cent auto-deduction of gross IGR is in line with the Finance Circular with reference number FMFBNP/OTHERS/IGR/CRF/12/2021 and dated December 20, 2021.
The circular limits the annual budgetary expenditure from IGR of the partially funded Federal Government.
But Olugbeko warned that if the Federal Government went ahead to implement the policy, parents would bear the consequences.
The union leader said it would force many parents to withdraw their children from schools.
He said: “Our union notes with enormous reservations the directive of the Federal Government that Federal Colleges of Education should remit 40 per cent of their Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) to the Federal Treasury. There is no basis to apply this directive to the Colleges of Education because revenues collected in the colleges are meagre charges meant for the discharge of specific services.
“In other words, Federal Colleges of Education do not generate IGR. What they charge are service charges for students’ identity cards, health clinic services, hostel maintenance, laboratory equipment, teaching practice, consumables, etc.”
“This decision represents another strike against teacher education. At a time critical stakeholders in the education sector are clamouring for increased funding of teacher education, provision of scholarships and bursaries for education students, government is initiating a policy to turn Colleges of Education into revenue-generating centres.
“While various tiers of government provide grants, scholarships, bursaries, and other incentives to students of Medicine, Law or Engineering and support them with stipends for housemanships, internships and industrial attachments, Education students are made to pay for Teaching Practice, and now the colleges will be required to remit portions of such payment.
“Take for instance, if government collects 40 per cent of charges for Teaching Practice exercise, how will the colleges produce the logbooks, lesson notes, assessment notes and pay for the external moderation of the exercise?
“If government collects 40 per cent of charges for hostel maintenance, how will the colleges carry out repairs, supply electricity, water, etc, to the hostels? The minimum amount most Federal Colleges of Education spend on electricity is N10 million monthly and government gives a total average sum of N8 million to run the institutions monthly.
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