In 2019, the University of Maiduguri admitted the highest number of students in the Nigerian university system. It was followed by UNICAL, UNIBEN, UNILORIN, UNILAG, UNIPORT, NAU, UNN, EKSU and RSU. These ten universities account for one-sixth of all admissions in 2019. In the conventional university system, UNILORIN has emerged as a very top university; more than 108,000 students applied to study there; it admitted about 12,000.
More so, Nigeria admits less than 33% of all students who apply to attend colleges; only 600,000 out of the 2 million that took the exams. From the data, it is evident that Polytechnics have lost many things; Yabatech had less than 2,500 applying but somehow it admitted excess of 4,000. The Akanu Ibiam FEDPoly, extremely respected in the Southeast received only 860 applications. Why not make it a Faculty in the Alex Ekwueme Federal University and reduce the bureaucracy? Why run Rector, Bursary, etc for the small numbers? I do think Nigeria can improve our efficiency on how we spend the little education budget we have by collapsing polytechnics into universities?
This is the summary: Nigeria needs to close all polytechnics and convert them into schools/faculties of nearby universities. Data shows that Nigerian young people do not see them as part of the future.
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(This post was not written out of elitism. Yes, he attended a university and now asking for the collapse of polytechnics. This is a pure economic & budgetary efficiency matter)
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Has Nigeria ever been serious about efficiency and minimising cost? Everywhere you look, you will see how we are wasting away, and we are drowning in debt. We do things we can’t even explain why we do them, but we keep doing them anyway.
The same way we created over five hundred MDAs, some of that them we can’t even explain what they do and where they do it, the people crediting the salaries and budgeted figures don’t even know where some of these entities are located, but we keep paying.
In every sector, we find a way to create monsters, with suffocating overheads, and don’t see anything wrong with it; so we keeping doubling down and repeating failure.
Two days ago the fellas in Abuja announced that they won’t be purchasing new cars this year, so what are they going to be driving, old ones? If it’s possible to be alive without purchasing new cars every year, why haven’t they be practising it? Think about it!
Schools are there for teaching, learning and research, but try finding the portion of the budgetary allocations that are dedicated to those three sacred duties; we rather spend money on things it’s never meant for.
Any leader here that manages to curtail Nigeria’s profligacy will be the greatest of all time!
This is unfortunate and disappointing!
In Nigeria, pyramid of education is turned upside down which has birthed and nurtured a huge discrimination between B.sc and HND.
Ofcourse, OND and NCE has long been washed down the drain and it’s like a crime to identify oneself of having either of the degree.
If I get you right and I stand to be correct, you are of the opinion that Polytechnics and colleges of Education should be closed down because young people no longer see them as part of the future.
Closing them down will not solve Nigeria’s problem.
The truth is that the “FOUNDATION” of education in Nigeria is “POOR and WEAK”. That is why “Nigerian young people do not see them as part of the future”.
Now if you ask me I’ll tell you that as a developing country, what Nigeria needs is dual system of vocational education and training also known as V.E.T.
This system of education has proved a huge success in Germany, China and other countries who adopted this system.
The positive impact is that you will have a “HIGHLY SKILLED WORKFORCE” in the labour market.
It will shock you to know that “MOST” of the German and Chinese experts that are celebrated across Africa do not possess a B.sc degree.
Instead, Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) should be adopted and implemented.
The numbers support Polytechnics to morph into existing universities, the overheads are unnecessary- bureaucratic positions and posts, allowances and cars etc. Now consider the unfair discrimination against HND/OND graduates, a strong case can be made for fazing them out.