The Vice Chancellor, Bamidele Olumilua Universty of Education Science and Technology, Ikere- Ekiti, Professor Olufemi Adeoluwa has called on the federal government to reversed its plans decision to make Polytechnic Campus of Universities to run degree programmes.
Professor Adeoluwa while delivering the convocation lecture of the 18th combined Convocation of the Federal Polytechnic,Ado-Ekiti said the move if not reversed may jump start the end of Polytechnic Education in Nigeria.
Speaking on the topic,the imperatives of Polytechnic Education in Enhancing the economic Development of Nigeria, Adeoluwa said all the federal government need doing is to give Polytechnic graduates their proper recognition in the country and totally eradicates the dichotomy between them and the University graduates.
According to him Polytechnic should not be allowed to go the way of Colleges of Education which are currently closing down and turning to a University.
He said, If care is not taken, I foresee a gradual erosion of what the Polytechnics stand for and this would have it’s own negative impact on the overall economic and national development in Nigeria”
Professor Adeoluwa who currently superintend over one of the Colleges of Education recently upgraded to a University said the gains of Polytechnic Education cannot be overemphasized.
According to him, Polytechnic Education builds in a student not only capacity for employability but also the capacity to create employment saying Nigerian Polytechnic have achieved a massive manpower development into the public and private sectors of Nigeria.
He said “The graduates of the Polytechnics are everywhere contributing their quota to the industrial development of Nigeria”
He said” When unemployment is tacked, poverty gradually fades away, Polytechnic Education is capable to make our teeming youths acquire the appropriate technology needed to convert the nation’s raw materials and agricultural goods into finished products through the fabrication of machines.”
He said, A lot of entrepreneurs in Nigeria derived their impetus and capacity from the Polytechnics”
The Professor of Educational Technology stressed the need for government to equip Polytechnic much more than has presently done and called for the creation of technology incubation centers in every local government area which he said can be equiped and monitored to harness the skills of Nigerian youths in technological innovations.
He said the federal government should do more to encourage local entrepreneurs by limiting the taste of Nigerians for foreign goods to those which cannot be produced in Nigeria and enacting strong sanctions against culprits.
He also said that government should focus more attention on vocational and Technical education in the secondary schools,this he said would create the pool from where prospective students of the Polytechnic would be groomed and motivated to take up Polytechnic Education.
Earlier the Rector of the Polytechnic,Dr Dayo Oladebeye said graduates of the institution are produced to provide a solid base for the technological breakthrough expected in Nigeria.