The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics on Tuesday said the establishment of Polytechnics in Nigeria is fast becoming mere constituency projects to satisfy political convenience.
ASUP President, Anderson Ezeibe, stated this in Abuja at a two-day workshop themed: “Advocacy Roundtable on the Future of Nigerian Polytechnics” organised by the union.
He said, “We do not agree with the continued establishment of new Polytechnics on the largely unsubstantiated premise of providing greater access to tertiary education for young Nigerians as the existing ones remain unattractive to young Nigerians.
“Our Polytechnics are currently facing an identity crisis as we are not convinced that sectoral mandates as envisioned and captured in the National Policy on Education are being met.
” Our products (graduates) are under-appreciated, discriminated against and traumatized by the prospects of an uncertain future after their training.
“Our members (teaching staff in the sector) are demotivated as there is little or no sense of fulfillment or self-actualization in their chosen careers. This is adversely affecting productivity and leading to consistent migration of qualified manpower away from the sector.”
Ezeibe added that the Polytechnics are nowhere close to preferred destinations for Nigerian students seeking tertiary education as the sector suffers from deep seated discrimination in different facets mainly driven by anachronistic tendencies.
He noted that the nation had equally been reaping bountifully from the tale of woes in the sector as shown by different economic indices which constitute an embarrassment to a nation with so much promise.
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