Following the upgrade of Delta state polytechnic Ozoro to Delta state university of science and technology and college of education, Agbor to state university of education, many lecturers who have been in the school for years but fail to upgrade their qualifications are in for great trouble. The upgrade of the schools to universities has automatically removed them from the system.
This is so because the state commissioner for higher education, Professor Patrick Muoboghare, during a media briefing with journalists, said any lecturer not having at least a master’s degree will not be part of the new university which will take effect from 2021/2022 academic session.
A lecturer at the polytechnic told our reporter in confidence that in his department, many lecturers have been in the school for over 15 years but refuse to upgrade their academic qualifications. They are still parading their B.sc up and down in the polytechnic. But now that the government has taken a new decision on the system, they can no longer fit in.
He also said that many of them do not write articles for professional journals, he added that within a period of one month he wrote several articles for professional journals and he sponsored them with his salary. But many others prefer buying cars and gallivanting around town with ladies and drinking beer.
He said: “You see me now, I’m trekking but I know what I’m doing. Their salaries are higher than me because they are seniors, they got there before me. But now, look at the development, who is losing? Is it me or them?”
Emerald News can report that some of these lecturers are only content with teaching and collecting salaries but never saw the need to upgrade their academic certificates. According to Muoboghare, all such persons will not be incorporated into the system. They will be wielded out and transferred to other lower institutions that can accommodate lower cadre officers.
This would have been another opportunity for easy conversion to university lecturers without passing through whatever stress but the opportunity has eluded them.
This is the same fort those in the college of education Agbor that has been upgraded to state university of education. Any staff there not having at least a masters degree will lose the opportunity. Such will also be moved to lower institutions where they are deemed fit to lecture.
Most of the lecturers in these schools that are not qualified are going about with gloomy faces because they have lost the opportunity. They cannot complete a masters’ programme between now and the commencement of the 2021/2022 academic session.
At the beginning when the news broke out, there was jubilation but on further check, the jubilation is now only among qualified lecturers and community members who will be privileged to have a university in their community.
