Polytechnic education and impact of politics

By Engr. Micheal Esho

Engr Michael Esho Rector, Osun State
College of Technology, Esa OkePRIOR to the establishment of Yaba Higher College in 1930, there were various training centers organized by some Government Departments. There was the Lands and Survey Training Centre (1908); Marine Training Centre (1928), the Public Works Department (1931); the Post and Telegraphs (1931) and the Railways (1942). All of them could not satisfy the country’s need for Engineers, Technologists and Technicians as at that time. However, the Welfare Act passed by the British Parliament in 1940 tried to address this problem and it was on the basis of this act that the Nigerian ten-year Technical Education Development Plan was formulated in 1944.

In 1948, in pursuance of the ten-year Development Plan, the Yaba Higher College which was established in 1930 was broken up and the departments were transferred to Ibadan where they formed the nucleus of the then newly established University College, Ibadan. What remained was renamed Yaba Technical Institute. The Yaba Technical Institute of 1948 was meant to train technicians who academically were not of the same status with today’s Polytechnic graduates, even though the Institute inherited the facilities left by the Yaba Higher College. It is apt to say that today’s Yaba College of Technology, and all other institutions in the family of Polytechnics, have really developed in every aspect through the process of evolution to their present enviable status.

In 1949, the colonial government of Nigeria appointed F.J. Harlow, Principal of Chelsea Polytechnic, London and W.H. Thorps, Nigerian Deputy Director of Education (Technical), to assess the need for establishing a College or Colleges of higher technical education in Nigeria. The report of the two-man team led to the establishment in 1952 of three regional Colleges named the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology with branches at Zaria, Ibadan and Enugu. The Zaria branch offered courses in engineering, sub professional Engineering, Architecture, Local Government and Secretarial skills. The Ibadan branch offered courses in Book Keeping and Accountancy, Pharmacy, Science and the Arts, while the Enugu branch offered courses in Mining, Surveying, Estate Management, Science and Arts.

These Regional colleges eventually metamorphosed into the first three regional Universities in the early years of independence namely Ife, Nsukka and Ahmadu Bello Universities, following the report of Ashby Commission for Higher Education in Nigeria in 1959.

Both the Yaba Technical Institute (although lower in status than a Polytechnic) and the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology represent the very early stages of Polytechnic Education in Nigeria, dating back to more than half a century.

It will be right also to point out that the first generation of full blown polytechnics in Nigeria were first and fore-most technical institutes or colleges which were primarily established to train technicians. Examples are Yaba Technical Institute that became Yaba College of Technology (1963), Ibadan Technical College which became Polytechnic Ibadan (1970) and Kaduna Technical Institute that became Kaduna Polytechnic (1964).

The Nigerian Ten-Year Technical Education Development Plan of 1944 was never followed to the letter and so, for one and a half decade the Yaba Technical Institute suffered from a slow emaciated growth up to the dawn of independence. After independence many universities were established with the University of Lagos coming on in 1960. In quick succession Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello and Ife followed.

All the universities started running courses in Engineering just like they did with courses like Law, Theology and so on. However, in Engineering, unlike in these Arts courses, the hood does not make the monk and it was soon discovered that the Engineering graduates produced by the Universities were mostly theoreticians with little or no practical grinding. As Professor Terry rightly said, “nobody ever learnt Engineering from books anymore than a person ever acquired the art of swimming or cycling theoretically in an armchair”.

The ‘folly’ of allowing every university to have a faculty of engineering was soon realized as the country now had a ‘large’ number of University trained Engineers, while there was a dearth of technicians which normally form the middle level manpower. It was like building a house from the roof top. The problem had to be corrected or else…

So, somehow the policy makers shifted their attention to restructuring Yaba College of Technology as if restructuring the College would have solved the problem. For justification, they pointed to records that said that Yaba Technical Institute (note: not Yaba College of Technology) was established to produce middle level manpower. The fact that Yaba College of Technology now had a higher status than the Institute did not matter to them. And so, concerted efforts were made to draw back the College by 30 years to the objectives set for the Yaba Technical institute of 1948. The government, to whom the idea was sold accepted it without question-forgetting all about the ten-year technical education development plan of 1944 which incorporated the objective of producing high level manpower at the close of the ten-year plan.

At the same time the ‘experts’ presented many papers to show that the ‘Yaba boys’ were doing too much theory and so the theory should be reduced so that they would study more practical aspects of their discipline. Curiously, as all these were going on, nothing was done to the syllabus of the University, which had been discovered by that time, to be inadequate, at least in the practical’s.

From then, the Nigerian Society of Engineers (established in 1958) had mounted a war of propaganda both covert and overt to ensure that the products of Yaba College of Technology are regarded and remained as middle level manpower regardless of the fact that the graduates of the College in 1968 were not the same as the graduates of the 1948 institute.

Nigeria of today is quite different from that of 1948. The Yaba Technical Institute of 1948 had since given way to Technical Colleges all over the country producing the much needed middle level manpower for the country. In the same vein, the number of Colleges of Technology has increased from one in 1963 to 56 today and adequately catering for the country’s high and middle level technological manpower needs.

Polytechnics in Nigeria, since inception, had to fight for survival. Even the re-naming of Yaba College of Technology in 1963 was not got on a platter of gold as it came after a very hot struggle. When eventually it came, it came with the enrolment of students for the Higher Technicians Diploma of the City and Guilds of London.

In 1969, the students went on strike again and this time demanded the abrogation of the Higher Technician Diploma and total autonomy for the College. Finally in July 1969, Decree No 23 was promulgated, and at last the vestiges of old Yaba Technical Institute had been removed and in its stead was now a College of Technology. The Yaba College of Technology. Section 1 (a) of Decree 23 of July 1969 states: “To provide courses of instruction, training and research in Applied Science Technology, Commerce, Management and such other fields of learning as the Council may from time to time determine”

Thus Technical Institutes were established to provide more ECONOMICALLY, the training given by several Government Departments, ab initio. Despite the establishment of Technical Institutes, by 1970 it had become evident that Nigeria, a technologically underdeveloped nation, could not (and cannot) compete favorably with others in a high technology - dominated global economy. The second National Development Plan (1970-75) identified shortage of technical manpower as detrimental to the success of the development plan itself. This fact compelled the Federal Government to establish seven Polytechnics via decree No 33 of 25th July, 1979.

The need to regulate technical education brought about the formation of the National Board for Technical Education whose mandate is to oversee and co-ordinate all aspects of Technical and Vocational Education i.e. Polytechnic, Monotechnics, (e.g. School of Surveying, Agriculture e.t.c.) Colleges of Health Technology, Technical Colleges and allied institutions.

The main objectives of technical education as stated in the National Policy on Education (NPE) of 1981 are:

(a) To provide trained manpower in Applied Science, Technology and Commerce, particularly at sub professional grades;

(b) To provide technical knowledge and vocational skills necessary for agricultural, industrial and economic development;

(c) To provide people who can apply scientific knowledge to the improvement and solution of environmental problems for the use and convenience of man;

(d) To give an introduction to professional studies in Engineering and other Technologies;

(e) To give training and impart the necessary skills leading to the production of Craftsmen, Technicians and other skilled personnel who will be enterprising and self reliant;

(f) To enable young men and women have an intelligent understanding of the increasing complexity of technology.

Now let me deal in more detail with the issue of the National Policy on Education. The National Policy on Education which was published in 1981 and is popularly called the 6-3-3-4 system of education departed most profoundly from the system inherited from the British Colonialists. It sought to provide six years primary education followed by a three-year junior and a three – year senior secondary education, culminating in a 4-year University Education. It was expected that the junior secondary school would provide both pre-vocational and academic education which would enable pupils to acquire further knowledge both cognitive and manipulative.

Products of the Junior Schools could then move to technically based schools, such as trade centers or technical colleges, while others would move to the more traditional Grammar School for their Senior Secondary. It was expected to take-off in 1982.

The Federal Government purchased equipment for the Junior Secondary Schools but these were dumped on open fields in schools – no buildings had been built to accommodate the machines and equipment, no teachers were trained to operate them. The manuals for operating these machines were written in languages different from English.