The three Lagos State Universities including Lagos State University (LASU), Lagos State University of Science and Technology (LASUST) and the Lagos State University of Education (LASUED) are oversubscribed in the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) application.
This is as a result of the continuous academic activities in the schools amid the prolonged industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Daily Trust reports that since ASUU declared its initial four-week strike on February 14, it has continued to roll over till date while other workers’ unions including Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institutions (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) also downed tools, thus, paralyzing both academic and non-academic activities for months.
Speaking when he hosted Education Writers Association of Nigerian (EWAN), Special Adviser to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Education, Mr. Tokunbo Wahab, explained that the oversubscription was as a result of failure of the State Universities to join ASUU strike.
“LASU and the two new universities are not on strike but we are worried that at the national level, students have been at home for months; and because of the absence of strike in the state universities, we are currently over subscribed,” he stated.
According to him, the first set of new students would be admitted by September; disclosing that the two new universities will run 96 programmes.
Worried by the prolonged ASUU strike, Wahab appealed to the Federal Government and stakeholders in the sector to intervene.
Wahab maintained that ASUU strike had to be called off to enable the students go back for their studies that had been truncated for months.
He emphasized the need for ASUU to change its approach to strike, saying no nation can develop with its active youths at home for months.
“An idle hand is the devil’s workshop. We cannot continue to keep the youths at home. The Federal Government and concerned stakeholders must act fast to end the prolonged strike.”
