A severe staff shortage has hit Nigerian universities as many lecturers leave the country for better opportunities overseas, raising concerns about the country’s struggling education sector, Punch reports.
In an interview with one of the national dailies, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) – the equivalent of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) – reported over a thousand vacancies in schools.
Several lecturers, the union said, are abandoning their appointments in state-run tertiary institutions across Nigeria in search of better opportunities abroad, a trend with a unique Nigerian term: Japa. Non-academic staff are not exempt from the japa wave.
ASUU attributed the mass exodus of members to low salaries, the highhandedness of government in the internal affairs of the institutions, bureaucratic bottlenecks, and harsh economic conditions. Several universities are now forced to augment their teaching staff with visiting lecturers from other public- and private universities.
Read more: https://punchng.com/lecturers-shortage-hits-varsities-asuu-blames-japa-ippis/
—Ezinwanne Onwuka reports for TruthNigeria from Abuja.
