Why Nigerian polytechnics are dying gradually — Presidential Panel

The falling standard of education in the country is responsible for the noticeable failures in the country’s polytechnics, a visitation panel has said.

Chief John Ochoga, the Chairman of the seven-man Presidential Visitation Panel constituted by the Federal Government to the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti, stated this on Wednesday in Ado-Ekiti during an interactive session with newsmen on its mission.

Ochoga, in his paper, titled: “Making the System Work,” said polytechnics had failed to live up to the desire of the designers of technical education, which was to promote technology and advance the economy.

According to him, the reason is due to the general falling of the educational standards in the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Ochoga said: “The disappointment we are getting in our Polytechnics is a function of our falling educational standards.

“There are students who are doing brilliantly well in some polytechnics and also in the universities, but whatever happens is part of the failure of the system.

“It is a general failure.

“You can get the best brains anywhere.”

The panel chairman agreed that in upgrading Nigerian Polytechnics, it was not out of place to re-jig the system and wipe out dichotomy.

He warned that this should not derail the focus if eventually actualised.

Ochoga said: “Nothing is wrong with upgrading our Polytechnics to university status; nothing is wrong with that, but that should not derail the focus, which is advancement of technology in our country.

“The better thing I think we should do is that we must respect diversities of our education, which has been our problem.

“We must diversify our revenue sources as individuals, this will wipe out this issue of dichotomy between universities and Polytechnics.”

He also clarified that the panel was not at the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti to probe individuals but to ascertain problems militating against the institution for necessary solutions.

Ochoga said: “We are expecting memoranda from the members of the public.

“This is not an investigative panel, but a panel that wants the system to work.

“We want to know where the problems are, what caused them, how we can tackle them and how the system can work better than we have.”