The National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) has identified poor funding for polytechnic education in Nigeria as the bane of Nigeria’s skyrocketing unemployment and under-development.
Speaking during the official inauguration of its executives in Abuja on Friday, the newly elected president, NAPS, Asiegbu Kingsley Chinonso, said polytechnic graduates are meant to be employers of labour not to seek for work.
Decrying low investment in polytechnic education, Chinonso said polytechnic education, which is a bedrock of development, is faced with a myriad of challenges which include, poor funding, deplorable infrastructure, inadequate manpower as well as the absence of the National Commission for Polytechnics.
According to him, the gross under-funding of the education sector, has impacted negatively on polytechnic education in the country.
“Within my tenure. I will drive efforts to ensure that polytechnic has a commission, like its university and College of Education counterparts to drive home the needs of the polytechnic education,” he said.
Universally, he said polytechnic education is meant to provide technical learning that could assist a society in meeting its industrial aspirations bit, unfortunately, the sector is currently passing through a difficult phase.
“The main objective of polytechnic education is the promotion of technical and vocational education and training, technology transfer as well as skills development to enhance the socio-economic advancement of the country.
“Polytechnic education plays a vital role in human resource development of a country by creating skilled manpower, enhancing industrial productivity and improving the quality of life,” he said.
