By Adejoke Adeleye
The Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun State, Dr. Olusegun Olanrewaju Aluko have lamented that the essence of Polytechnic education in the country is being eroded as a result of the BSc and HND dichotomy.
Aluko, who spoke at a press conference to herald the 40th Anniversary and 19th Convocation ceremonies of the institution, regretted that majority of the Polytechnics in Nigeria had lost focus and the essence of their establishment.
According to him, Polytechnic graduates and University graduates were not supposed to be competing for the same employment, if not for the dearth of industries and manufacturing companies in Nigeria, which he said, had further contributed to the unemployment rate in the country.
His words, “The way Polytechnic education is structured is for the graduates of Polytechnics to be able to use the skills they have acquired to create wealth for themselves but Nigeria is just dodging, but we will still come back to it.
“We are talking about unemployment but when we say unemployment, the percentage of those that are unemployed are those that are university graduates and the problem is that they have no skill.
“Majority of the small scale entrepreneurs in the country today are graduates of the Polytechnic and that is the essence of Polytechnic education.
“In the past, people don’t work in government establishments, all of them wanted to work in factories and industries because they know that when you are working in the industries, you earn more than when you are working with government.
“But the problem of Nigeria is that all those industries have collapsed so where we (Polytechnic and University graduates) are not supposed to be competing, we are now competing but I know that Nigeria will rise again and that is when Nigeria will realise the essence of Polytechnic education.”
The Rector, however, charged Polytechnic graduates to make good use of the skills acquired in schools to create wealth instead of searching for white collar jobs that are no longer existing.
Speaking on HND and BSc dichotomy, Aluko said, “Polytechnic graduates should not lose sleep over this because with the skills they have acquired in the Polytechnic, coupled with entrepreneurial education, there is no way they won’t find something doing.”
He, however, outlined that the one week event would begin on Wednesday, October 9 while the grand finale would hold on Wednesday, October 16 with a Fellowship Award to be conferred on the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi.