The Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Professor Bola Akinterinwa, has said the polytechnic education is not inferior to the university education but both are good for national development.
Specifically, the don said there should be no confusion in the two systems of education, as he noted that the purpose of polytechnic education is different from that of university education.
Akinterinwa stated this at the fourth Foundation Day Anniversary Lecture of the Federal Polytechnic, Ile-Oluji, Ondo State. The lecture is titled, ‘ Polytechnic education in national development: global challenges and strategic leeway for the FEDPOLEL in Nigeria.’
He said, ” We observe that polytechnic education is as equally important as university education, even though they differ in their curricular and pedagogy. In both cases, it is a matter of the graduate not being a job seeker in the employment market but being a graduates that employers are desperately looking for.
“The importance of polytechnic education has been variously explained in policy actions of many governments. For instance, even though the existence of polytechnics dates to the 19th century in the United Kingdom, it is only as from the 1960s that it began to gain prominence because of the contemporary need to provide skilled technical and engineering manpower required for industrialisation.
“Polytechnic education and university education have similarities in
the extent of the national and international recognition of
their pedagogical approaches.”
In his remarks, the Rector of the polytechnic, Professor Emmanuel Fasakin, said the institution was aiming at equalling the polytechnic education in the United States of America and China so much that “we become a pace setter in the arena of technical and vocational education and training.”
“Although we are still a long way off, we are steadily trudging forward to achieve our lofty ideas,” Fasakin stated.
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