EDITORIAL: Nigeria’s polytechnics and development

It is painful to watch the continuing nonchalant attitudes of both the federal and state governments in giving requisite recognition to the place of polytechnic education in the country. Regrettably, this attitude is responsible for the continued ignorance on the place of polytechnic education to the overall technological development of Nigeria. For long, experts and scholars have called on   the authorities to give polytechnic education its pride of place. Rather than heed such call, successive administrations have been too faint hearted in channeling adequate resources to technology institutions. Result is that Nigeria continues to lag behind in the competitive race for technological advancement.
We are pained at this lack of foresight, especially when it is realised that no nation worth it salt and in quest of economic advancement can ignore the role of polytechnics in achieving it.  It is a fact that polytechnic education places emphasis on practice-based learning and skills acquisition.  Sadly, the dilapidated infrastructures in most of the country’s polytechnics do not arm them enough to impart such skills. This sorry state of affairs make learning cumbersome, as students and academics find it increasingly difficult to access well-equipped libraries, up-to-date laboratories and modern technology gadgets.
Incidentally, the increasing number of polytechnics and decreasing government and private funding are adversely affecting the quality of academic staff.
This explains, why no polytechnic in Nigeria is among those currently ranked in Africa. Moreover, the sorry state of these institutions is responsible for the lack of technological progress in the country. Is it any wonder that even when Nigeria boasts of several polytechnics, her economy continues to stagnate? Observers posit that the reason is that the country’s polytechnics no longer attract bright students, as the latter continue to shun them for the universities, where academic learning is purely theoretical.
Moreover, the continuing disparity between university degrees and polytechnic certificates has not helped matters, because it is doing more harm to Nigeria’s educational advancement and economic development.
There is no denying that polytechnic graduates continue to suffer from disparities as reflected in their salary grade levels, particularly in the civil service where entry point for Higher National Diploma (HND) holders is Grade Level 07, and those with university degree is GL 08.
For long, HND graduates have found it harder to progress beyond GL 14 in their civil service career. This dichotomy has been responsible for the lack of continuing enthusiasm among prospective students to apply for places in polytechnics.
With such   unsavoury development, it is difficult to see how polytechnic education can really fulfill its goal of producing competent and resourceful personnel to drive the country’s technological and industrial development. It is interesting to note that Europe and America, including China and India owe their technological prowess to polytechnic/technical institutions. It is time federal and state governments implement policies that would give polytechnics their revered role in technology development.
Continuing delay would consign Nigeria to a technology backwater. It is time for action to bring the country’s polytechnics to par with peers in other countries.