Lagos — TEACHERS in Federal and Unity Schools yesterday commenced their indefinite strike to protest the plan by the Federal Government to sell their schools to private managers.

Daily Champion investigations indicated that students of King's and Queen's Colleges loitered yesterday as teachers down tools in Lagos State.

At King's College, students were seen in groups loitering without any teacher to attend to them as there was no academic activity in the college.

Some students, who spoke to Daily Champion said they were not happy for not taking their lessons yesterday, even as some were shouting "no to privatisation of Unity Colleges".

At Queen's Colleges, the unit chairman of teachers Mrs Stella Olugunju told Daily Champion that the strike will be indefinite till the Minister sees reason with them, adding that sundry services including catering in the school would be withdrawn.

"For now, we are on work to rule. Next week, we will close down the school," she said.

She wondered why the Minister, who was a beneficiary of unity school, "Federal Government College Enugu" would turn her back on the Unity School that produced her.

Mrs Olugunju, said the problems or the Unity Colleges were not from teachers, rather from the management which do not do the right thing at the right time.

Also speaking on the row, South West coordinator or Unity Colleges Teachers, Comrade Frank Omole, told Daily Champion that Unity College was to integrate Nigerian children and as such privatising it would make mess of its laudable objective.

He said teachers in Unity Schools would continue with the strike until Education Minister calls them for dialogue.

Teachers, under the aegis of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) said the sale of Unity Colleges to private managers as planned by the Minister for Education, Mrs Oby Ezekwelisi was "retrogressive, provocative, ill-digested and self-serving, as such will not be accepted by them.

The union said the sale of 102 Unity Schools in the country would lead to loss of over 27,000 jobs in the colleges.

"Unity schools will now be only for the rich and will no-longer accommodate the interest of the ordinary Nigerians, if they are sold to the money bags as planned by the Minister," the union claimed.

The union also said that various schools across the country would withdraw their services to the students by October 16, 2006, it the Federal Government refused to rescind to sell the unity schools.

It advised parents to recall their children and wards from school with effect from October 16, 2006 as their safety can no longer be guaranteed by teachers.