RE: REDEEMING POLYTECHNIC EDUCATION FROM PERSISTENT EXISTENTIAL THREATS
PRESS STATEMENT
RE: REDEEMING POLYTECHNIC EDUCATION FROM PERSISTENT EXISTENTIAL THREATS
Our attention has been drawn to a paid advert in Daily trust newspaper, dated 24th July, 2025, page 8, by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), bearing the above caption and addressed to His Excellency, Mr. President.
While we acknowledge the right of ASUP to raise issues on improving Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Nigeria, there were many misleading errors in the press release that should be corrected:
1. The National Board for Technical Education is the first and only regulatory body in Nigeria to introduce digital accreditation in 2024 to address the following challenges:
a. Falsification of data submitted in physical accreditation, such as the use of borrowed equipment, rented lecturers, fake records, etc. Our use of technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI), in particular, has brought an end to this.
b. Insecurity and limited accessibility in some states when conducting accreditation physically. Digital Technology has bridged this challenge.
c. The ‘Brown envelopes’ saga of the past has also been brought to an end, as there is no physical contact between the staff of the Board and the Institutions.
2. At the moment, over 90 percent of all our accreditations are done digitally (online). Digital accreditation and quality assurance has therefore become the mainstay.
3. The Hon. Minister of Education graciously allowed Physical Accreditation to continue in a few cases, such as the following categories of Institutions:
a. Where there is no internet or poor internet access. For example, there is a Federal Polytechnic in Taraba State, established in 2007, which, up till now, is not on the national grid and has very poor internet services.
b. Where ICT infrastructure is weak, especially in new Institutions, yet to get all arms of the Institution well-grounded.
4. These smaller number of institutions (less than 10 percent) are to be handled by Vendors, as practiced in advanced countries, for the following reasons:
a. NBTE currently has approximately 100 program officers covering around 900 Institutions, including Polytechnics, Colleges of Agriculture, Colleges of Nursing and Health Technology, Innovation Enterprise Institutions, and specialized institutions.
b. Since 2023/24, NBTE has not been able to recruit new program officers to replace those who retired.
5. In line with the Public Procurement Act, vendors were approved by the NBTE Tenders Board after advertisements and other screening processes, carried out transparently and witnessed by several stakeholders.
6. The physical accreditation by these Vendors, two in each geopolitical zone, has only taken off in June/July 2025. The Hon Minister of Education has approved that we carry out Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) unannounced, and we should include ASUP nominees in this exercise. We were expecting ASUP to wait until after participation in such M&E exercises before they jump to conclusions.
7. Other issues raised by ASUP could be looked into by the Government, but the Union leadership, coming largely from State Polytechnics, seems to have lost focus and lacks a driving ideology to guide their struggle. If it were not so, ASUP should have seen NBTE as a partner in progress, that is all out to reposition TVET and promote skills for national development, a campaign that we have all witnessed, since the assumption of office of the current ES in 2021.
8. Now that we have a Federal Government that values TVET, making it a cardinal pillar, and is doing all that is necessary to promote, upgrade, and use TVET to change the narrative of the Nigerian teeming youth, renewing their hopes and growing our economy, there is need to put all hands-on deck to bring the much-needed succour, and dignity to the TVET sector.
May God continue to bless His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, and the New TVET Initiative recently launched by the Hon Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa.
May God bless the Federal republic of Nigeria.
Mrs Fatima Abubakar
Head, Media Unit, NBTE.