At the instance of the new Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, and with the sponsorship of TETFund, the Chairpersons of Nigeria's Federal Polytechnics met recently in Calabar for four days (February 9-14) in a brainstorming retreat. The dual goal of the retreat was to discuss the problems facing polytechnic education in the country and to recommend possible solutions. It also afforded the exchange of ideas and social networking among the Chairpersons.

Their findings are implicit in their recommendations, which were summarised in a comprehensive communique, reported by various newspapers after the retreat. However, the newspaper reports only regurgitated the contents of the communique, without discussing them. Besides, in the typical tradition of Nigerian newspaper reporting, there has been no followup. This article attempts to fill both gaps.

As expected, the major recommendations of the communique cover: (1) funding; (2) curriculum; (3) supervision; (4) infrastructure; and (5) security

Funding

Perhaps the most significant factor behind the fall in educational standards in Nigeria's federal educational institutions is inadequate and irregular funding. This is especially true of polytechnic education, where less than half of approved capital budget is often released, thus making it difficult to maintain existing structures or pay contractors for ongoing construction, not to speak of embarking on new projects. The result is the abandonment of numerous projects as elsewhere in the country. As if this were not enough, delays in releasing subventions translates to delays in releasing funds for overhead expenses and the payment of salaries.

Right from the inception of polytechnic education in this country, the emphasis has been on the development of necessary skills and competencies that would prepare the students for appropriate job placement. This also has been the reason for recent emphasis on entrepreneurial skills that would prepare the students to initiate some business or some trade after graduation. Unfortunately, however, this desire has not been backed up by the necessary funds for the polytechnics. Hence the call by the Chairpersons to the government to set aside special funds for skills development so that a key goal of polytechnic education could be attained.

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Although not expressed in the communique, it will be very helpful if the federal government could allow the polytechnics to keep and use tuition fees collected from their students as this is the main source of Internally Generated Revenue for these institutions, especially those created within the past five years. Asking under-resourced institutions to remit as much as half of tuition fees collected to the federal government amounts to double jeopardy.

Nevertheless, credit must be given to the government for TETFund's release of funds to federal institutions for special projects, staff training, and attendance at conferences. It is also TETFund that provides the seed money for newly established federal institutions. It must be emphasised, however, that the fund does not come directly from the federal budget but from two percent of the taxes collected from the profit of companies registered in Nigeria. True, TETFund was set up by the federal government to arrest the deterioration in educational infrastructure caused by years of poor resource allocation. Nevertheless, TETFund cannot, and should not, replace the government's responsibility to the institutions it established. This is the essence of the Council Chairs' call to the federal government for more and regular funding to the polytechnics.

Curriculum

A comprehensive review of polytechnic curricular offerings in all disciplines is long overdue in order to align them with current technological realities and ensure that they meet the needs of the Nigerian job market. Another important reason for curricular review is the pending legislation in the National Assembly to equate HND with a university degree, by awarding a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) to successful candidates. If future HND holders are to just the elevation of their degree to a university degree, then some knowledge equivalent is warranted.

My experience with the polytechnic graduates I have hired has led me to question their knowledge and even that of their teachers. One had an OND in statistics but could hardly do simple computations, not to speak of basic statistical analysis. Another had HND also in statistics but had no idea of the meaning and uses of basic statistical terms, such as mean, variance, and probability. Worse still, she could not even make sense of an opinion poll done by my company after the data were coded and analysed, although she took part in data collection. It was not surprising, therefore, when, in another study along Oke-Aro street in Akure, I discovered that a number of the women petty traders, selling soft drinks, fruits, and roasted plantain or corn, were polytechnic graduates. One of them said she took the decision to start selling foodstuff after looking for a job unsuccessfully for over six years.

In engaging in any curricular review, it will not be enough for the National Board of Technical Education to do so in Kaduna or Abuja, without involving experienced past and present polytechnic faculty.

Supervision

At present, the supervision of the polytechnics is done by the NBTE, which currently supervises 787 institutions throughout the country. The polytechnics are the apex of these institutions. However, because the NBTE is overburdened, the polytechnics have been left to be preyed upon by other arms of government.

As a result, various ministries, departments and agencies of government and numerous committees of the National Assembly devolve on the polytechnics or summon their Rectors (and sometimes, their entire management team) to Abuja for one reason or the other. It would have been great if these visitations and summons resulted in improvements in the quality of polytechnic education or their funding. On the contrary, their goal has been extortion of the meagre resources of these institutions. I drew attention to this unwholesome practice in an earlier article (see Repositioning TVET in Nigeria, The Nation, February 5, 2025).

In order to correct this anomaly, the Committee of Chairpersons recommended the establishment of a Polytechnics Commission at par with the National Universities Commission with similar functions. Indeed, the polytechnics have been asking for such a Commission for quite some time.

However, the current bill before the National Assembly on awarding a B. Tech degree to HND holders should require the National Universities Commission to supervise the HND programme in order to maintain parity with other university degrees, while the NBTE should be left only with the OND programme. Nothing should prevent the NBTE from imitating the NUC practice of employing reputable polytechnic teachers along with the NBTE staff in carrying out the evaluation and quality assurance of the OND programme.

I am aware that many Polytechnic Rectors support the establishment of a Commission for their institutions. However, their demand seems to come more from frustration with the NBTE than from anything else. Nevertheless, I am not sure that the solution they need is more bureaucracy.

Source: The Nation Newspaper

Author: Niyi Akinnaso