Challenges of polytechnic education in Nigeria
By Engr. Micheal Esho - updated: Thursday 24-07-2008
President Umaru Yar’Adua(Continued from last week)
3.3 INADEQUATE INFRASTRUCTURE
The third issue to be considered is inadequacy of infrastructural and physical facilities. Many Polytechnics are located in rural areas lacking in water and electrical supply. I dare say that Polytechnics in urban areas by-and-large, suffer the same fate. Polytechnics are therefore compelled to bear the cost of providing and running these auxiliary services. Training programme components of Polytechnics ordinarily have a high content of workshops and laboratory activities.
3.4 STAFFING
Academic staff of the right caliber is also serious problem confronting the Polytechnics. The Polytechnics do not produce their own teaching staff therefore; there is inadequate number and quality of teaching staff. The Polytechnics rely on the Universities for training and development of its staff.
This problem is more highly exhibited in Polytechnics situated in rural areas where it is more difficult to attract highly skilled professional manpower. More distressing is that, there is hardly a Polytechnic in Nigeria today with a well-defined and operational staff development programme.
3.5 FUNDING
Of the great number of courses being run by Federal Polytechnics, only 35 per cent of its technology based programmes have been accredited. Why? Inadequate funding.
Funding has always been the major constraint on the development of effective Technical and Vocational Educational and Training. If the Federal Government cannot provide funds for accreditation of more than 35 per cent of the courses run by Federal Polytechnics, what do we expect from State Polytechnics?
To engage in training the trainers’ programmes requires funds. To have a meaningful staff development programme inclusive of overseas training on latest equipment requires funds. To equip laboratories and workshops with up to date and latest equipment you need funds. Only government, both state and Federal, is capable and able to fund education – especially technical education. In the past, we toyed with the idea of internally generated revenue through:
(a) Soliciting for funds from philanthropists
(b) Endowments
(c) Polytechnic Consult and Continuing Education centres.
All these activities met with limited success. However, in several cases it has led to a stupefying increase in the number of students admitted into both part-time and full-time programmes. Since the secondary schools were not producing science students, and the technical schools were also non-productive, the greater expansion of students’ enrolment was in the humanities/non technology based courses. We have therefore run foul of the 70:30 ratio stipulated by the Federal Government.
We have considered some of the factors responsible for the dismal position of Polytechnic education in Nigeria today. The question that arises is this: what is the genesis of this problem? Let me quote at this juncture an anonymous contributor, he wrote “…Those that created the polytechnics are tacitly frustrating it from ALL ANGLES.
It is starved of funds, denied of quality manpower and its graduates and teachers are denied equal opportunities”. And that is POLITICS. Let me illustrate with a few examples:
3.6 THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICS:
1. The decision (now suspended) which was termed consolidation of tertiary institutions was to convert all Polytechnics and Colleges of Education into campuses of proximate and contiguous Universities. It was a beautiful political maneuver to seek applause from unsuspecting students and ignorant citizens of Nigeria. The Government claimed that they wanted to expand access to University education without proliferation of Universities. It was expected that all Polytechnic students would swallow the bait and clamor for its execution.
Thank God that we were not taken in by such irrelevancies.
The Government further claimed that the Polytechnics have now become Colleges of Management Studies rather than colleges for Technical and Vocational Education for which they were established. These two fallacies that formed the basis of such a fundamental decision had been debunked. In the first instance, the management of Polytechnics along with the Alumni Association have always requested the Federal Government to grant full Postgraduate opportunities to Polytechnics or more reasonable entry level in our Universities for HND holders. This would have improved the chances of producing more University graduates without proliferation of Universities.
“The second example is the 70:30 ratios of technology-based courses to non-technology courses to which the National Board for Technical Education is now so committed. It is refusing to grant accreditation to management-based courses of our Polytechnics. Now, if you have failed to fund our Polytechnics adequately with latest technological devices and equipment; if you have failed to upgrade decay in infrastructural facilities; if you have failed to fund our Polytechnics adequately with latest technological devices and equipment; if you have failed to address the deficiencies inherent in the system; if you have failed to carry out the required emphasis in the study of sciences in the secondary schools and the technical schools are moribund; if only 6.3 per cent of our secondary school pupils study the sciences, where do you want to get the 70:30 ratio in the Polytechnics? Our belief is that implementation of this policy under the current environment in Nigeria is injurious to education in the South-West States of the Federation. Infact, state Polytechnics cannot implement this decision in view of its political and socio-economic consequences.
At this point, it is pertinent to quote from the paper presented at the 2008 Polytechnics Technology Exposition by the Executive Secretary of the NBTE, DR. NURU YAKUBU himself:
“Manpower is not just in the number, it is in the quality in the number as well. Therefore, the manpower-base of any nation refers to the stock of trained, skilled and semi-skilled persons available for the production of goods and services, and providing the infrastructural edge needed for attaining and sustaining a high level of development. In the current dispensation, it is the catalyst for achieving rapid national development aspiration. However, attaining quality manpower requires considerable and consistent INVESTMENT in the country’s stock of human resource. This in itself is achievable through QUALITY TRAINING and development. The country’s educational system therefore becomes the pivot for production of quality manpower required to service the various sectors of the economy.
In the current dispensation, the production of quality manpower in Nigeria has been one of the main pre-occupation of the Polytechnics, Universities and Colleges of Education. In particular, the Polytechnics by the nature of their structure have been able to turn out both intermediate (ND) and high level (HND) manpower for the various sectors of the economy. The question is, to what extent has the manpower requirement of Nigeria been met so far”….?
He went ahead to conclude thus:
“When these professionals are further aggregated into related groups, Agric profession has the highest manpower gap of 59 per cent, Science group 57 per cent, Engineering group 46 per cent, Environmental designers 44 per cent, and Business has the lowest gap of 35 per cent.
Finally, the survey establishes an aggregate national manpower gap of a whopping 60 per cent. This is inspite of the huge number of professionals currently unemployed”
Ladies and gentlemen, the last sentence is the most important: A HUGE NUMBER OF PROFESSIONALS CURRENTLY UNEMPLOYED. Why are they unemployed? They are “unemployable” because the quality of training has been deficient. They have certificates, diplomas, degrees without the requisite skills and knowledge and this brings us right back to the initial question: THE POLITICS OF POLYTECHNIC EDUCATION.
Why create Polytechnics you cannot or refuse to equip for adequate training and exposure?
CONCLUSION
While preparing this paper, I was stunned at the large body of essays, proposals and recommendation made over the years by a large number of people in academia and outside for the improvement in education generally and Polytechnic education in particular. I discovered a large body of newspaper articles on the same subject and I was confounded that yet again the issues need be raised. It seemed to me that this indeed would be a wasted effort because, in truth no one is listening. This was my mood until I reflected deeply and realized that this attitude is not peculiar to issues of Polytechnic Education alone but the whole gamut of beautiful plans and proposals made over the years in respect of all aspects of economic life of Nigeria. Good ideas have been propagated. You are all aware of NEEDS, SEEDS, e.t.c plans to uplift the economic well-being of Nigerians. However, when it comes to implementation, we fail woefully.
Why?
With respect to Polytechnic education therefore these are the salient questions to ask:
1. Why is it that the Government, both State and Federal, cannot find the political will to implement education policies in general and technical education policies in particular.
2. How come that Government can not provide incentives and encouragements to attract talented Nigerians in science and technology, to train and retrain experts in technical education?
3. Is it really impossible for governments both state and federal to provide sufficient funds for the provision and replacement of infrastructure, tools, equipment, machines, textbooks and recruitment of qualified personnel?
4. Is it impossible to restructure science and technology curricula in our institutions to make them relevant to the needs of industry?
5. Is it impossible to provide level playing ground for University and Polytechnic graduates?
Concluded
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