By our Reporter
Dr Nuru Yakubu,former executive secretary of National Board for Technical Education (NBTE),has said that Polytechnic education in terms of skill acquisition in the country is in comatose.
Dr Yakubu disclosed this in his lecture at the 2nd Raheem Adisa Oloyo annual public lecture held at the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun state. The guest lecturer, a former Rector of Kaduna Polytechnic, who spoke on the theme titled ” Re- engineering polytechnic education in Nigeria to achieve a paradigm shift in Nigeria’s development agenda”stressed the need for the leadership in the educational sector to focus more attention to skill acquisition and technology to enhance development.
Dr Yakubu urged the government to use the National Youth Service Corps( NYSC) scheme to impact skills on the graduates of various institutions in the country during their one year mandatory service year. Dr Yakubu, a former national commissioner of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who spoke extensively on the lecture suggested the positioning of the polytechnic education by ensuring effective skills acquisition in the system. He charged the government to upgrade the polytechnics in the country to the degree awarding institutions to meet the goals of polytechnic education. To achieve this goal, Dr Yakubu called on the government to scrap Higher National Diploma (HND) in the polytechnic system by allowing National Diploma (ND) the only route to the polytechnic degree. Speaking earlier, the Rector of Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Dr Olusegun Aluko disclosed that polytechnic education in Nigeria is under siege which calls for proactive measure from government to redeem education sector in the country. Dr Aluko pointed out that this siege in the polytechnic education necessitated the need for the platform of the public lecture for discussion aimed at advancing the aim the polytechnic education is designed to achieve.
