- Says institution to embark on mass food production
- Reels out achievements to mark first year in office
From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
The Rector, Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Engr Temitope Alake, has said the dichotomy between Higher National Diploma(HND) and Bachelor of Science(BSc) certificates is responsible for the slow rate of development of polytechnic education in the country.
Alake, the 7th substantive Rector of the institution, lamented that the disparity between the two certificates has grossly affected the enrolment of students into polytechnics.
He, however, revealed plans by the Institution to embark on mass food production with a view to ending food scarcity.in the country and boost the institution’s Internaily Generated Revenue (IGR).
Alake stated these at the weekend at a press conference held at the polytechnic’s main campus in Ado-Ekiti, capital of the state to commemorate his first year in office.
Speaking on the dichotomy between HND and University certificates, Alake remarked, “As regards HND/ BSc dichotomy, it is a serious problem and this has not encouraged the youth to come in. It is one the serious factors competing against the development of technical education in Nigeria.
“The polytechnic education is not as old as the university education, hitherto, the polytechnic system is bedevilled by the fact that people who formulate policies for them are university graduates and these university graduates are the people that set the bar. The National Council on Education is the highest body determining the ranking of certificates, they refused to allow the two certificates to be at par. It is a certificate that people see as second class certificate, but be that as it may that certificate has its own merits.
“The dichotomy is affecting our HND classes especially in the Engineering, you see a class that is supposed to be of about 120 class size, you only see less that 30 students because once the students have their National Diploma (ND), they move straight to university to acquire degree, and when you ask them why, they tell you they don’t want to play second fiddle and to worsen the situation, the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), at a time they said even when you have HND and PGD they will not register you and who are the people making these laws?Not even that one alone, the Architecture Council of Nigeria, they have the same problem, when you have HND even when you perform excellently well, they will disregard you.
“But, we thank God for some of the universities in the East, and South like Enugu State University of Technology (ESUT), Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma, Edo State and few others like that, when you have HND, they will place you appropriately but in the West it is not like that.
“Not until we are able to get it right, vocational education will be at individual’s conviction, a parents who wants his child to learn something will tell him or her to go to the Polytechnic.
“The university allows for universal education, the professional courses, you start them intensively at 300 level but when you come into the polytechnic your take off is at the professional level. So, you will see that some courses that are being handled at ND level in the polytechnics are handled at 400 or 500 level in the university. In the Polytechnic they will take you straight to the profession. In the university, even as an Engineering student, you will still do those General Studies (GST) courses, after passing through them you will then come to your area of specialisation. This makes graduates from the polytechnics to be more skilled.
“The federal government has been encouraging polytechnic education. We have been having good interventions greater than the universities, such interventions as skills acquisition, entrepreneurial development etc and with that anybody that is informed will allow his child to acquire vocational technical education because you will have a sellable skill, when you don’t have any skill to sell you can not have money in your pocket. With the way things are going, it will get to a level where somebody that has sellable skill will be more comfortable than somebody that has degrees even to the third degree.”
The institution’s helmsman who urged Nigerians to embrace vocational acquisition skills, appealed to parents and guardians to allow their children and wards acquire sellable skills. He noted that the institution is committed to training students to have manipulative skills in order to be job creators.
“The digital economy is reducing the need for man power. That’s why we want to appeal to the parents to bring their wards to a technical school.
“This will enable them to acquire manipulative and vocational skills so that they will be job creators.”
On the mass food production, the Rector said the institution plans to achieve this by collaborating with the School of Agriculture.
He said the polytechnic’s venture had been revamped towards generating revenue, hinting that the bread and poultry production would be restored to help boost the IGR of the institution.
“This Institution will embark on mass food production through the efforts of School of Agriculture.
“This will help in making food available for our people as the country is currently going through economic downturn.
“By the time this one is achieved, food scarcity will be gone.”
Reeling out his achievements since assumption of office a year ago, Alake said his administration has executed many infrastructural projects which include, ongoing construction of New School of Environmental Building, ongoing construction of Mass Communication Complex, which will serve as the studio for the department, Construction and furnishing of 36-room Students’ Hostel Building, ongoing construction of a Block of 4 classrooms, sponsored by the IGR Project of the institution, among others.
Alake said his administration also made significant impact in the area of electrification, noting that the Institution has migrated from 11-33KV resulting to 15-hour power supply per day with the erection of new electricity poles in the Institution.
He said since he came on board his administration has been prioritising the welfare of members of staff with no condition and also subsidised their transportation to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal.
The Rector used the occasion to appeal to philanthropists to donate tractors and hostels to support the institution.