Polytechnic graduates have experienced widespread discrimination due to discrepancies in their certificates, making it impossible for them to raise their heads high in public. However, stakeholders are working to end certificate discrimination, ensure preservation of polytechnic education, and the sector’s significance to national development, IBRAHIM ADAM reports
Polytechnic education has experienced minimal expansion, which led to the sector’s failure to deliver the anticipated impact in the country.
Technical education is critical to technical growth and development. Unfortunately, polytechnics, which were established to provide technical education, have been pushed to the background.
Despite having 123 polytechnics, the country is still regarded as technologically behind. This raises the question of whether polytechnics have outlived their usefulness in Nigeria, as several are being converted to universities.
The president of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Anderson Ezeibe, said the Nigerian polytechnic system is still the only branch of higher education in the nation functioning without an independent commission.
He said: “The Nigerian polytechnic system remains the only arm of tertiary education in the country operating without a dedicated commission. Polytechnics in Nigeria remain in the irregular mix of other sub-tertiary level education institutions totaling over 600 with the adverse effect of inadequate regulation for the polytechnics.
“It is in this light that we welcome the decision of the government to include the establishment of a National Commission for Polytechnics in the Roadmap for the Education Sector 2024 – 2027 in the hope that such shall see the light of the day.”
Big Concern
The National Assembly in 2021 passed the “Bill for an Act to Abolish and Prohibit Dichotomy and Discrimination between First Degree and Higher National Diploma in the Same Profession/Field for Employment; and for Related Matters.” It presented it to former President Muhammadu Buhari for assent. But Buhari did not sign it.
Rukayat Olowu, a former student of the now-defunct Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH), had her hopes of learning at a polytechnic shattered when she declined to return for a Higher National Diploma (HND). She attributed her action to disparity in certificate.
Olowu expressed her desire to become a photojournalist so that she could represent her gender and compete at any level.
“It is now a norm in our society that a polytechnic student suffers due to the disparity created between university and polytechnic in Nigeria. Instead of wasting my time returning for HND, I would rather go to a university to have a certificate to avoid discrimination and condemnation. I wanted to learn the practicals of photography in the polytechnic, but I can’t risk it again.
“I wanted to compete at any level after acquiring the skills needed and make people realise that women are taking up responsibilities and duties. But with what we have now, polytechnics are gradually going into extinction because a university graduate is seen as a degree holder while a polytechnic graduate is seen as a mere diploma holder. This would continue to be lot of polytechnic graduates,” she said.
Another polytechnic graduate, Johnson Oluwole, expressed gratitude for the services of the polytechnic lecturers, adding that they are competent and well-informed as their university counterparts.
He emphasised that some polytechnic graduates struggle to secure international acceptance when seeking admission into higher institutions abroad.
“The degrees awarded by the Nigerian Polytechnic system before the international academic community lack recognition enjoyed by the Bachelor’s degree. The discrimination disguised as a dichotomy between Nigerian Polytechnic graduates and university graduates has been on for what seems like forever and its erasure is not in sight,” he said.
The Rector of the Federal Polytechnic Ado Ekiti, John Alake, said the biggest danger to the survival of polytechnic education is the disparity between university and polytechnic certificates.
He expressed regret over the Higher National Diploma (HND) certificate perceived inferiority to the Bachelor’s Degree (BSc), claiming that this has resulted in a negative impact on students’ enrolment in polytechnics.
“The Nigerian Council on Education, which is the highest decision-making body, has refused to allow the two certificates to be at par. The case is made worse by the fact that in some Western countries, you discover that the HND certificate is irrelevant, it is obsolete. There was a time when I tried to use my HND in Canada and it was certified as an irregular certificate.
“Once a student completes OND, he moves straight to the university to acquire a degree. When you ask him why he decided to do so, he says that they don’t want to play second fiddle. If there is no synergy between polytechnics and universities, it would lead to backwardness. It will amount to a waste of public funds,” Alake added.
According to Ezeibe, the discrimination has caused young Nigerians to choose university education over polytechnic.
Conversion of polytechnics, colleges to varsities
ASUP has branded the federal and state governments’ conversion of about 24 polytechnics and colleges of education to universities over the years as an attempt to “kill” technical education in our country.
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) warned against the proliferation of universities, amid inadequate funding of existing ones. However, stakeholders have described the move as worrisome, considering the function polytechnics and colleges play in producing middle-level manpower.
The National Universities Commission (NUC) explained that the reason for the upgrade was to increase access to university education. But, ASUP described it as frivolous attempt to wipe out public polytechnics in the country.
Ezeibe recalled that polytechnics were established to produce professionals in technical and vocational education, to address manpower needs.
“This is why the practical component in the curricula for polytechnics is higher, as they are expected to produce people with hands-on expertise. This is not the same with universities.
“The question for those who are on this voyage of conversion, like the Lagos State Government, is whether the need for such manpower has been satisfied.
The principal reason for the upgrade is just because the enrolment figures are dropping across polytechnics due to the discrimination against their products.
“Our proposal of allowing polytechnics to attain degree-awarding status will resolve all these issues: satisfy the quest for degree-level certification, deepen technical education through curricula enhancement, retain the expanding pool of qualified manpower in the polytechnics, attract funding, and stop the HND/degree dichotomy,”
Tinubu to prioritise technology, vocational education
At the 38th convocation ceremony of Bayero University in Kano State, President Bola Tinubu gave an assurance that his administration would prioritise vocational education, technology, and skills to improve job prospects in the country.
The first step toward achieving this goal, according to the President, is the establishment of 24 innovation and skills hubs at polytechnics and entrepreneurial centres in universities.
Represented by the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, Tinubu said: “We strongly believe that our survival can always be assured by the qualities of human capital development, which is why we make education one of the top priorities of this administration.
“For this purpose, in the first phase of the programme, the government is building 24 skill and vocational hubs in polytechnics as well as entrepreneurship centres in our universities. We are also reviving 970 Tsangaya centres for integrated learning and development of Almajirai in the country.
“We are also building 91 vocational schools in secondary schools across the country to ensure that all levels of education enjoy the impact of our policy. Our universities are centres of learning and need to upscale and adjust to the modern world by repositioning themselves as citadels of education that will bring about development.
“The universities are strongly advised or encouraged to run industries to develop their research output into products for our community,” the president stated.
Absence of polytechnic commission
According to ASUP, the education sector has remained at risk because there is no standard commission overseeing polytechnic practices.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Itoro Ekanem, members of the House of Representatives have taken steps to create a commission specifically to monitor the industry.
The Bill for the establishment of the polytechnic commission, which has passed the second reading in the House of Representatives, was introduced by the lawmaker representing the Afikpo North and Afikpo South Federal Constituency in Ebonyi State, Idu Igariwey.
The union announced its support for the plan and highlighted that the commission’s existence will speed up efforts to ensure that polytechnics award degrees and eliminate discrimination against former students of these institutions.
“Indeed, the absence of a dedicated commission to concentrate on the proper regulation of polytechnics as one of the legs of the tertiary education tripod has, for several years, been seen as one of the posters of discrimination against Nigeria’s endangered polytechnic system as the other tiers of tertiary education in the country have dedicated commissions in the National Universities Commission and National Commission for Colleges of Education for universities and colleges of education, respectively.
“It is, therefore, commendable that the House of Representatives view this Bill by Hon. Igariwey and his colleagues as progressive and in furtherance of the need to ensure equity and appropriate fulfillment of the establishment mandates of polytechnics in the country.
“This same need was recognised by the Federal Ministry of Education in this dispensation as the same was captured in the approved ministerial roadmap for the education sector covering 2024 to 2027,”
To rectify what it refers to as an academic injustice, the National Association of Technologists in Engineering (NATE) also advocated for the creation of the National Polytechnic Commission.
NATE National President, Dominic Udoatan, attributed blame for other institutions’ decline to lawmakers’ excessive emphasis on university education.
“The disparity between the university and polytechnic graduates is taking its toll on the enrolment of the students as many parents prefer to have their children registered in the former. Student enrolment at various polytechnics nationwide is dwindling yearly due to the premium placed on the university education. Also, the management of polytechnics is not helping the matter as they are practising the same in terms of recruitment and promotion of staff in their institution,” he said.
Polytechnic administration
ASUP Chairman, The Polytechnic Ibadan chapter, Kola Lawal advised federal and state governments to stop using university employees to oversee polytechnics.
Lawal contended that the polytechnics’ operations ought to be managed by an administrator, who is familiar with the institutions’ culture.
“You have a settlement and there are people who have lived all their lives there, then you want to pick someone to rule over the people. Such a person must be someone who has also lived there and has a deep understanding of the people, their culture, and tradition.
“But if you leave the people who grew up in the settlement alone and you bring somebody with a different culture to come and rule over people whose culture is different from his, it will take him quite some time to understand how things are done in the new environment.
“I want to take the aforementioned analogy to the polytechnic education system in Nigeria. Most of our governments rely on bringing people from the university system to come and rule over the polytechnic system and this is one of the problems that is killing polytechnic education in Nigeria.
“When these people come, they are bringing in the culture of the university system. The National Board for Technical Education said anything we do, we have 70 percent practicals in our content and 30 percent theory. Whereas in the university system, the reverse is the case. So when they come to administer us here, they look at us with the eyes of the university they are coming with. They do not understand the system.
“We have chief lecturers in the polytechnic system. The professorship is just a promotion. There are a lot of lecturers in the polytechnic system who now have Ph.D. I’m bold to say here that at The Polytechnic Ibadan, we have more Ph.D. holders than some universities.
“Our national body has started that agitation that henceforth, we will not allow university professors to come and be rectors of polytechnics in Nigeria. Fortunately, that advocacy got to the National Assembly and we now have what we call the Polytechnic Act that has stipulated that anybody that must govern a polytechnic in Nigeria must be a chief lecturer from the polytechnic sector.”
Presidency, NASS collaborate on skill acquisition
To increase the number of employable citizens, the National Assembly and the Presidency decided to work together on skills.
The two arms of government made this resolution at the unveiling of the House of Representatives Committee on Polytechnics and Higher Technical Education.
The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to President Bola Tinubu on Technical, Vocational, and Entrepreneurship Education (TVEE), Abiola Arogundade, said in her keynote at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja that action plans had already been mapped out to shift the focus of the Nigerian education system from theoretical knowledge acquisition to skills empowerment.
“Some of the programmes we have lined up in revitalising the sector towards making our youth to be skillful and productive are establishing a Nigeria Institute of Vocational Studies, upgrading the infrastructure of secondary and tertiary vocation systems, developing a national vocational teacher training curriculum as well as rebranding and restructuring polytechnics in the country.
“In achieving this, the curriculum of learning should therefore be tailored towards skills acquisition so that products of the education system could equip themselves with necessary skills and education to earn a living and be employers of labour themselves,” she said.
She emphasised that President Tinubu’s administration will take seriously the global trend of technical, vocational, and entrepreneurship education becoming a top priority in government programmes as the cornerstone of job creation.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Labour, Sen. Diket Plang, remarked that, for the benefit of all, the focus of education in Nigeria should shift from obtaining certificates to developing skills.
B.Tech to empower polytechnic graduates
The Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Ayede Ogbomoso, in Oyo State, Dr Taofeek Abdul-Hameed urged President Tinubu to consider substituting the HND certificate with a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) to alleviate educational gaps and help impoverished students across the country.
He used the economies of China and the United Arab Emirates as examples to support his claim that entrepreneurship and technological proficiency are essential to a country’s progress.
Highlighting the polytechnics’ emphasis on practical skills and entrepreneurship, the don stressed the scarcity of white-collar jobs, advocating for practical skills and self-employment after graduation.
“The way out is for the President to assent to the bill and cancel the HND or else the disparity will continue. We hope that President Bola Tinubu signs the bill soon since the last administration failed to do so,” he said.
