The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has decried the inadequate funding of the polytechnics by the state governments.
The technical education regulatory agency said the inadequate funding of the polytechnic is responsible for the lack of adequate technical manpower in the country.
The north-central coordinator of NBTE, Dr. Musa Koko stated this in his presentation at a workshop organised by the Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Kwara State on the institution’s ” 2021-2024 Strategic Plan Critique Workshop” in Offa on Wednesday.
Koko lamented that state governments were not providing funds for the infrastructural development of the state owned polytechnics, thereby making expansion of technical programmes impossible in the institutions.
He, however, called on the federal government to ensure that the polytechnics’ curriculum is tailored towards the nation’s industrial needs.
Earlier, the chairman of the 2021/2024 strategic planning committee who is also the deputy rector of the polytechnic,Dr. Augustine Adama, said the workshop is aimed at ensuring the inclusion of inputs from the relevant stakeholders in the final copy of the action plan.
He said the institution had successfully implemented its strategic plan for 2017- 2019.
In her presentation, the dean of Research and Innovation at the institution, Dr. Grace Korter said that the institution’s strategic plan is aimed at increasing the students’ population into some programmes that are less populated” when situationally compared with some other programmes being offered by the institution.”
She said the strategic plan also aimed at changing gender imbalance between male and female students in the institution, which she said currently affects female students in some programmes.
Sikirat Shehu