Students Decry Poor Funding Of Polytechnics

The National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) has identified poor funding of polytechnic education in Nigeria as the cause of Nigeria’s skyrocketing unemployment and under-development.

Speaking during the official inauguration of its executives in Abuja yesterday, the newly elected president of NAPS, Asiegbu Kingsley Chinonso, said polytechnic graduates were meant to be employers of labour, and not job seekers.

Decrying low investment in the sector, Chinonso said polytechnic education, which is a bedrock of development, was facing challenges which include poor funding, deplorable infrastructure, inadequate manpower as well as the absence of the National Commission for Polytechnics.

The gross under-funding of the education sector, according to him, has impacted negatively on it.

“Within my tenure. I will drive efforts to ensure that polytechnics have a commission, like its university and College of Education counterparts to drive home the needs of 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. It is, however, sad that the sector is currently passing through a difficult phase in the country, he said.

“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.