Allow polytechnics to confer degrees, says an ex-federal government secretary from NBTE

Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports

In order to relieve the “JAMB bottleneck and lessen admission constraints on universities,” Dr. Muhammad Yakubu, a former executive secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), has urged the Federal Government to allow polytechnics to provide bachelor of technology degrees.

If accepted, the policy, according to Yakubu, will also ensure that a sizable amount of technical equipment in workshops, labs, and other facilities in public polytechnics that has been underutilized because of a small student population is fully utilized.

This was said by the former rector of Kaduna Polytechnic while presenting the Federal Polytechnic’s Second Raheem Adisa Oloyo Annual Lecture in Ilaro, Ogun State.

Dr. Raheem Adisa Oloyo, a former rector of the college, was honored at the lecture.

In his talk titled “Re-engineering Polytechnic Education in Nigeria to Achieve a Paradigm Shift in Nigeria’s Development Agenda,” Yakubu argued that allowing polytechnics to grant degrees will boost the nation’s ability to produce the middle- and upper-level workers that are sorely needed.

He continued by saying that such policies will give young people the chance to pursue technical employment and higher education in the sectors of their choice without sacrificing the essence of their vocations.

He pointed out that Nigeria’s inadequate student enrollment in polytechnics and technical institutions prevented the country from experiencing growth.

Without a strong Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system in place, “Nigeria’s economic future is doomed,” he claimed.

Yakubu also urged the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the NBTE to follow the Chief Gray Longe Commission’s 1990 recommendation that “there should be 10 students in the polytechnics and colleges of education for every student enrolled in the universities.”

Regarding the low polytechnic enrollment rate, he reminded that 1.8 million students were admitted to universities in the 2018–2019 academic year, compared to 342, 986 students who were admitted to polytechnics and other technical institutes.

He said that more people enrolling in polytechnic and technical colleges will help the country’s need of trained workers.

“The polytechnic enrollment rate is appalling, especially when we take into account the facilities, funding, and labor at our disposal.

In actuality, less than 2.6 percent of senior school students attend technical colleges or scientific and technological colleges.

There is a clear need to assess the structure of the country’s TVET system and develop a reform strategy, he added, given the significance of TVET for the integration of youths into the labor market as well as for the growth prospects of major value chains.

The Rector, Dr. Olusegun Aluko, expressed worry that “polytechnic education is under siege” in his remarks and stated that one way to address the problems facing polytechnics is to keep this branch of higher education at the forefront of public discussion.