The National Universities Commission (NUC) recently approved the upgrading of three higher institutions in Delta State to universities due to high demand for degree programmes.
One of the upgraded institutions, the College of Health Education, Agbor, is now the University of Delta, Agbor.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa said the state assembly passed an executive bill to upgrade the institutions to full-fledged universities.
He said the decision was as a result of high demand for degree programmes in the state and low subscription to Polytechnics as well as the failure of the existing universities to admit the number of secondary school graduates seeking admission.
Delta is not the only state that has upgraded existing institutions into universities, a few other states in the country have done so; converting polytechnic or colleges of education to universities.
A few years back, the federal government also issued a letter of recognition to the government of Ogun State to upgrade Moshood Abiola Polytechnic to Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology, Abeokuta.
Experts say this trend of upgrading polytechnics and colleges of education into universities is becoming worrisome considering the function the two cadres play in producing middle-level manpower.
Polytechnic education provides technical and vocational education and training, technology transfer and skills development to enhance the socio-economic development of the country while Colleges of Education are tasked in the area of producing professionally trained teachers for vocational and technical secondary schools to meet the nation’s requirements for technological take-off as provided in the National Policy on Education.
However, according to educationists, the upgrading of these institutions into universities is not unrelated to low patronage by students.
This, according to them, spells doom for the country in terms of producing skilled manpower.
A polytechnic graduate, Philomina Emmanuel, said what is happening is unfortunate because no one can say any tertiary institution is less important than the other.
“I graduated from a polytechnic before going to the university via direct entry. I stood out because I have the practical knowledge of my course and feel more experienced whenever we have assignments to carry out,’ she said.
She however said considering the way polytechnic graduates are treated, she was not surprised that people now prefer universities, “after all, who will like to be relegated to the background after suffering in a difficult education system in Nigeria.”
For the President of Higher National Diploma Holders Association of Nigeria, Sebastian Onyemaobi, “Nigeria as a country, we don’t focus. The philosophy of polytechnics is to produce practical oriented graduates who will go to the workplace and hit the ground running, but we have a country that doesn’t appreciate that philosophy.”
He said China in 2018 converted over 600 universities to polytechnics and that is why most of the engineers from China are polytechnic graduates – that is where they train manpower for workplace expertise.
Onyemaobi said because of the issue of contest, class and certificate-based approach, most people feel going to the university is the best.
“I attended polytechnic. When I went for NYSC we were about 12 posted to a particular place. I was the only one that wrote a proposal that they accepted and they retained me because that was what I was trained to do.”
He said: “Nigeria does not have the concept of performance management, all they value is what certificate he has so it won’t be surprising that anyone converts polytechnic or college of education to university because they don’t know their value.”
A lecturer with Kaduna Polytechnic, Alhassan Kauranmata, said that is simply another manifestation of the dilemma in Nigeria as far as the educational system is concerned.
“We don’t seem to know exactly what we want from our educational system, the whole idea of establishing a polytechnic s was to create middle-level manpower and the emphasis as far as polytechnic education is concerned is on skills, the practical aspect, while the university emphasised the theoretical aspect.”
He further said: “The university degree appears to be more lucrative if you consider the dichotomy and conflict we are having on disparity between degrees and HNDs, which is one of the reasons people are clamouring for university education.”
The lecturer said government should come out clearly on university education providing the theoretical basis and polytechnics the practical aspects both of which are essential because “theory alone will not take us anywhere; we need the practical aspects also.”
“Unfortunately, now we are converting polytechnics and COEs to universities just like we did with the teacher training institutions. We woke up one day and did away with them. What is the implication of that on our education? We lack qualified teachers now.”
According to him, that is the same situation they are creating now, “doing away with the polytechnics and colleges, sending everybody to universities, converting everybody to a theory person and in the end, we are going to have a crisis with the practical aspects which is as essential as the theoretical aspects.”
For Oluwabunmi Anani, a teacher in Adamawa, polytechnics and colleges of education play vital roles in the tertiary education system, and of course the development of society.
“In light of the above, therefore, why are these veritable institutions being converted into universities? she asked
She said it boiled down to the issue of people’s collective orientation as 90 per cent of the population has no appreciation for the value derivable from polytechnics and colleges of education.
“We do not talk about them with our students and children. We inundate their ears with ‘university, university, university. Hence, their first and preferred choice is always the university.”
She further said society tends to look down on graduates of polytechnics and colleges of education. They are not given any regard unless they are exceptionally good.
“To worsen matters, jobs are more within the reach of university graduates than their poly counterparts. Worse still, there’s a disparity in their remuneration! In fact, in some really good schools, graduates of colleges of education are flushed out or not employed at all,” she added.
While noting that if the conversion continued it wouldn’t augur well for Nigeria in the long run, she said overtly declaring these institutions irrelevant is mocking the future of technological advancement for our society.
“Every institution of learning has its place and purpose. Let us equip them to produce the standard and value we need. Let us appreciate them as part of the learned society. Let them also harp and justify their relevance through a more aggressive output in excellence and creativity,” Anani said.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof Abubakar Rasheed, said more universities are needed not just to accommodate millions of Nigerian seeking admission but because of the concern about the integrity of the degrees.
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