To move Nigerian economy forward, the Rector suggests that there should for a single university, there should be five polytechnics.
At a time the Federal Government of Nigeria is upgrading some polytechnics to a university status, the Rector of one of the oldest polytechnic in Nigeria has a different opinion.
Prof. Idris Bugaje, the Rector of Kaduna Polytechnic while speaking with newsmen in Kaduna state urges the Federal Government to follow the example recently showed by China.
He said, “China three months ago converted 160 universities to polytechnics so that they will provide the middle-level manpower to move the Chinese economy forward.
''But at the moment we have more universities than polytechnics, so we are doing it in the reverse order in this country.
“For every single university, there should be nothing less than five polytechnics so that we can support the engineers. An engineer is trained to do design, but who implements the design and brings it into reality? Who does the fabrication, commission and installation of every plant? Is it not the technologists? So, we need more technologist than engineers.''
Bugaje also said he is not against the Federal Government's move to turn its polytechnics to universities, but he would like Kaduna Polytechnic to maintain the tradition of awarding ND and HND.
FG scraps HND certificates in polytechnics
Recall that the Federal Government recently scrapped award of Higher National Diploma, HND certificates by Polytechnics.
The decision to scrap the degree was reached on Wednesday, June 6, 2018, at the Federal Executive Council, FEC meeting.
The award of HND will, therefore, be limited to only the students that are currently admitted for the programmes in Polytechnics across the country.
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Also, some of the programs currently being run by the polytechnics that are not technology-based will also be scrapped.