Professor Muhammad Idris Bugaje, the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), has described as outdated the National Diploma (ND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) engineering curricula, which have remained unchanged for the past 20 years.
Bugaje said Nigeria’s aspirations for industrialisation were hindered by the outdated curricula offered in its tertiary institutions, describing them as relics of the last century.
Speaking during a courtesy visit by a delegation from the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), led by its president, Professor Sadiq Zubair Abubakar, Bugaje stressed the urgent need for a comprehensive review of engineering education to align with global standards.
Bugaje appealed to the federal government for increased funding to facilitate the overhaul of engineering curricula, citing the inadequacy of the current budget allocation, which averages N50 million annually for the review of over 300 curricula – a task deemed unfeasible.
