A university don, Dr. Fassy Yusuff, has solicited recognition and investments in polytechnic education in Nigeria.
Yusuff, an ex-Ogun State Commissioner for Information, noted that the hands-on and industry-responsive model of polytechnics helps train students in advanced skills.
He, however, lamented that this has not received the recognition it deserves.
He stated this while delivering the annual lecture of the Ijebu Muslim College Old Students Association, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, with the theme: “Life After Secondary School Education,” on Saturday, July 20, 2024.
Yusuff, an author and communication expert, said polytechnic and professional education is one of the various means of acquiring additional knowledge, including vocational and crafts education, technical and religious education, and university education.
He said, “Polytechnics are post-secondary institutions that offer advanced technical education. The polytechnic model is hands-on and industry-responsive education because it trains students in advanced skills. Unfortunately, this form of education has not been recognised in Nigeria because of the craze for university education.
“The point to be made here is that polytechnics usually offer a more practical, hands-on approach to technical subjects, whereas, universities tend to focus on the empirical, research-based studies.”
While addressing students in the Senior Secondary School 3 class, the former commissioner advised that they should develop their capacities and competencies “to know what should suit you – may be polytechnic or professional education or a combination of both.”
Alternatively, you may opt for university education,” he added.
The don also emphasised the significance of possessing professional certificates, adding that student members, with the educational requirements, can use such opportunity to “prepare for the professional examinations that eventually lead to the membership of the body when certified.”
Yusuff lamented the crimes some admission-seeking students and their parents perpetrate, saying, “Ordinarily, university education should be an optional stage. However, everybody wants to have tertiary education at all costs.
“Some students and their parents go to any length to secure university education (for their children), in the process perpetrating all manners of evil and nefarious practices.”
On vocational and crafts; education which he said “prepare people for a skilled craft as artisan, trade as a trader, or work as a technician.”
He urged some of the senior students to consider learning vocational skills such as bricklaying, carpentry, cosmetology, among others, noting, “Not all of us have the intellectual capacity to cope with higher education (polytechnic or university).”
In his address, the association’s National President, Olawale Salami said the lecture chosen within the context of ‘”Youth Development and Empowerment was designed to prepare the SS3 students of Ijebu Muslim College, Ijebu Ode for challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of them after they graduate from the school and enrich the young ones with relevant and important information.”
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