Minister Meets Polytechnic Lecturers Over Strike

The National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) has met with the minister of education, Dr. Tunji Alausa and tabled a 10-point demand.

The association also got the commitment of the federal government to revamp polytechnic education.

The meeting held at the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja was led by the NAPS president, Comrade Eshiofune Paul Oghayan and had top ministry officials including the director of polytechnics and monotechnics, Dr. Ejeh Alex Usman and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Student Engagement, Comr. Asefon Sunday Dayo in attendance.

In his opening remarks, Comrade Oghayan commended the minister for his commitment to education reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu.

The 10-point demand include full inclusion of polytechnic students in the NELFUND scheme, implementation roadmap for newly approved TVET programmes, comprehensive polytechnic curriculum reform, increased funding for polytechnic institutions, legislative and executive action to abolish the HND/B.Sc. dichotomy and rejection of polytechnic-to-university conversion with calls for system upgrades instead.

Other demands include National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) eligibility for ND part-time graduates, upgrading the NBTE to a National Commission for Technical Education (NCTE), youth empowerment and inclusion of NAPS technocrats in national programmes, and the establishment of a National Agricultural Empowerment and Employment Agency (NAEEA).

The NAPS president also highlighted the ongoing crisis at Federal Polytechnic, Ekowe, Bayelsa State, where students have been without lectures for over three months while accusing the rector of gross mismanagement.

In his address, Alausa pledged that polytechnic education would no longer be sidelined.

The minister constituted a national committee to resolve the crisis at the polytechnic with NAPS included as a stakeholder.

Key commitments from the minister include inclusion of polytechnics in NELFUND, TVET expansion, curriculum reform, more funding and pledge to address HND/B.Sc. dichotomy through an executive bill to legally abolish the disparity among others.

Also speaking at the event, Comrade Dayo urged students to avoid late registration for schemes such as NELFUND and NYSC.

He warned that system delays often stem from last-minute applications, advising students to act promptly when portals open, while assuring that government would continue to remove structural bottlenecks.