The Committees set up by the Federal Government to assess the infrastructural and related needs of the public Polytechnics and Colleges of Education across the country with a view to come up with actionable recommendations that would guide government in repositioning the institutions have submitted their reports. Presenting the reports on behalf of the members of the committees on Tuesday, 01 July 2014 in Abuja, Mrs. Hindatu U. Abdullahi, Director, Tertiary Education Department, who chaired the Committee of Colleges of Education, said that the committees adopted diverse methodologies, including data collection templates, to capture various information from fifty-nine (59) Polytechnics made up of 21 Federal and 38 States, and sixty-six (66) Colleges of Education comprising 21 Federal and 45 State. She said that the reports contain the findings and recommendations of the committees based on facts, figures and tangible evidence gathered from the institutions visited. Receiving the report, the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief (Barr.) Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, thanked the members of the committees for timely submission of the reports, saying that the reports will be immediately forwarded to Mr. President. He assured that government would extensively deliberate on the reports as done for Universities with a view to finding funding options. Some of the findings in the reports are as follows:- •All categories of physical facilities in both Polytechnics and Colleges of Education are grossly inadequate, while available ones are utilized beyond the installed capacity; •Some vital learning resources are completely unavailable; •The enrolment policy of 60:40 ratio for Science and Arts based courses in Colleges of Education and 70:30 in favour of Science / Technology and Arts/Social Sciences in Polytechnics is not implemented; •In some institutions, the teacher- studentratio is low; •Most of the institutions do not have on- campus hostels while the available ones are overcrowded, poorly lit and not adequately ventilated and in a state of disrepair; •Municipal facilities are inadequate and in poor condition. Based on these findings, the Committees recommended the followings: •Completion of abandoned and on-going projects; •Rehabilitation and upgrading of facilities, infrastructures that are in the state of disrepair; •Provision and rehabilitation of students hostels through public private partners; •Recruitment of qualified teachers and training /re-training of personnel; •Provision of essential Learning Resources/ Materials; •All Polytechnics and Colleges of Education should be linked to the National Power Grid and provide alternative/ support of power in Libraries, Laboratories, Workshops and Studios; •Review of the laws establishing these institutions. Specific recommendations for Polytechnics are: •Removal of the dichotomy between holders of the 1st Decree qualifications and Higher National Diploma; •The Curriculum of the Polytechnics should be reviewed regularly to address changes in industries and the demand in society, ensuring inputs from stakeholders; •The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and National Universities Commission (NUC) should develop standards for the award of B. Tech by Polytechnics. Specific recommendations for Colleges of Education are as follows: •Grant autonomy to deserving Colleges of Education to award degrees in Education; •Colleges of Education running Degree programmes should increase the enrolment of students into their programmes; •The National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) should ensure that all Colleges of Education running a Degree programme should have not less than sixty per cent PhD holders of the total academic staff strength for each of the degree courses. •Provision of Centres for Education technology (CET) with all the requisite facilities. It would be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan, in May 2013, approved the constitution of the NEEDS Assessment Committees of Nigerian Public Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, which the Honourable Minister of State for Education, Chief (Barr.) Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, inaugurated on October 28, 2013, to among others, carry out a detailed inventory and appraisal of all existing physical facilities for teaching and learning in the institutions with particular reference to their adequacy, quality and relevance.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Jul 2014 21:04:22 +0000
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