Who cares? It’s all in our attitude towards vocational education
It is a measure of what tertiary public education has become in our country today that many Nigerians are not even aware that most federal and states-owned polytechnics have been closed for almost one year now with all the attendant implications for the future of the students. The strike which commenced on April 29 last year was temporarily suspended for a few weeks between July and October 2013 to allow room for more dialogue between the federal government and the teachers. Not only have the students lost a complete academic session, there are no signs on the horizon that the crisis will be resolved anytime soon.
From trade schools to technical schools and now polytechnics, it is obvious that the authorities no longer see the need for vocational education in our country and that perhaps explains why we are turning out certificated illiterates who have no basic skills. Even the curriculum in the polytechnics now under lock has been so bastardised that most of them offer courses in social sciences rather than in fields of practical application of knowledge for which they were established. Yet no society grows with such a cynical disposition to vocational education.
Indeed, a recent World Bank report highlights the danger of the dearth of skilled technicians in Africa and that is a big challenge for the country today. Those in the construction business would readily attest to the fact that artisans and craftsmen are mostly imported from Togo, Benin Republic and other neighbouring countries. Carpentry, plumbing and such other artisanal crafts that provide huge employment opportunities have been largely ignored and such is the level of decay that even those who attend polytechnics use it as a ladder to enter universities rather than a place to learn practical education.
It is noteworthy that the federal government met with the union when the strike started, but the engagement did not yield results. They met again in January this year where the government offered to settle N20 billion which represents 50 per cent of the arrears of their monetary demands but there was also no deal. The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) leaders are perhaps raising the stake because, as they argue, they are not getting the kind of attention that was given to the universities when the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) went on strike. The government has said it has met 90 per cent of the demands of the union, but ASUP said that it is mere propaganda.
The grouse of the polytechnics teachers includes the failure to kick-start the re-negotiation of the FGN/ASUP Agreement which fell due in July 2012; failure to reconstitute the governing councils of federal polytechnics which were dissolved 16 months ago; refusal to implement the CONTISS 15 Migration for the lower cadres in the polytechnic sector; failure to release the White Paper on the visitations to federal polytechnics more than one year after the exercise; failure to commence a Needs Assessment of polytechnics; and the dismal condition of state-owned polytechnics in the country. Others are the failure of most state governments to implement the approved salary packages (CONPCASS) for the academic staff; their refusal to implement the statutory 65-year retirement age for academic staff; the inclusion of the polytechnics in the IPPIS scheme while the other subsectors in tertiary education are left out of the scheme; and the refusal of the federal government to establish a National Polytechnics Commission.
Whatever the misgivings about some of the demands, and the federal government has in fact met a few, the fact remains that neither the authorities nor the society places any premium on polytechnic education in our country. That then explains why they would be closed for one whole year without any concrete efforts to address their grievances.
