Systemic Failure Killing Nigerian Polys, Says Presidential Panel

Ayodele. Adesanmi Ado Ekiti

The Presidential Visitation Panel sent by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti, on Wednesday said the falling standard of education in the country was responsible for the noticeable failures in the country’s polytechnics.

The Chairman of the 7-man Panel tagged: “Making the System Work”, Chief John Ochoga, spoke during an interaction with newsmen on their mission at the Polytechnic.

Ochoga said the Polytechnics had failed to live up to the desire of the designers of technical education, which was to promote technology and advanced the economy, due to general falling of the educational standards in the country.

“The disappointments we are getting in our Polytechnics was 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”.

Ochoga agreed that upgrading the Nigerian Polytechnics was not out of place to rejig the system and wipe out dichotomy, warning that this should not derail the focus if eventually actualised.

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

“The better thing I think we should do is that, we must respect diversities of our education, that has been our problem.We must diversify our revenue sources as individuals This will wipe out this issue of dichotomy between universities and Polytechnics”, Ochoga said.

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

“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 are here to interrogate the system . 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”.