Association Seeks Upgrade Of Facilities In Polytechnics

L-R: Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, Commissioner for Transportation, Mr Kayode Opeifa and Senior Special Assistant to Lagos State Governor on Transport Education, Dr Mariam Masha, at the finals of “Be Road Friendly” competition in Lagos, yesterday. Photo: NAN

The National President,
Nigeria Association of Technologists in Engineering (NATE), Chief Leo Okereke, has appealed to the Federal Government to upgrade technical facilities in polytechnics in the country to aid the growth of technical education.
The NATE’s President made the appeal in Port Harcourt while on an assessment of technical facilities in government polytechnic in the state last Friday.
He said technical education in the country was not developing, stressing that essential facilities relevant to the development of technical education should be made available to institutions in the country to aid rapid growth of technical education.
He appealed to government to focus more on technical colleges and polytechnics since, according to him nothing is working in the nation’s technical colleges and polytechnics that are supposed to serve as the bedrock for production of technicians, technologists and engineers in the country.
Okereke said “I think it is high time our technical colleges and polytechnics were well equipped and funded to provide the needed technology for the development of the country”.
He said it would be of necessity for government to make the nation’s technical education good enough to complete with other developing and developed nations of the world, stressing that Nigeria as giant of Africa should also strive to be the giant of technology in Africa.
The NATE President said the assessment should be done by the association was to aid the growth of technical education and assist in advising policy formulators on the relevancy of technical education in the country.
He also appealed to the federal government to as a matter of urgency resolve the ongoing strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) in the interest of stability in the nation’s educational system.

Philip Okparaji