The Rector, Kwara state Polytechnic, Ilorin, Engineer Abdul Jimoh Mohammed, has stressed the need to change public perception of Lecturers and students of Polytechnic in the country
Speaking during media interaction on first year of his administration in Ilorin on Thursday, the rector said that Public perception of polytechnic education is challenge militating against polytechnic education in the country.
“An average Nigerian will prefer to pay N250,000 as university education fees per semester than N60,000 for polytechnic education fees of same period. This is not because what we do here is not good or our staff are inferior. Most of our staff have the highest education qualification in the world, which is doctorate degrees from reputable institutions, but the public perception of the polytechnic education is part of the problems. Calling you a professor is just by the way of practice. And until public perception of the lecturers and students is changed, by you and I, including operators of polytechnic education, the situation will continue”, he said.
While stressed the need to flush out bad eggs in the Polytechnic education, he said “if there’s punishment for erring staff, why not reward for productive staff?”.
” We are working towards having reward for productive staff here starting next year and we plan to make it an elaborate event, because if there’s punishment for erring staff, there should be a reward system for hardworking and productive staff.”
“As part of the challenges, there’s the issues of inadequate funding and lack of proper project monitoring in polytechnics. Also, there’s issue of staffing, where you have round pegs in square holes, coupled with poor staff commitment, as the case may be.
He added that poor funding, inadequate monitoring of research projects, irregular staffing and poor commitment are among the identifiable factors.
The poly rector, who said that his one year in office has witnessed various developments in the institution, added that the school had also responded to societal challenges and improved its internally generated revenue (IGR).
“As part of commitment to improve the IGR, we introduced a scheme tagged, #one department-one patentable and commercialisable product. This scheme gave birth to hand sanitizer and germicide hand wipe from Department of Science Laboratory Technology. The pedal operated hand washing machine, a product of Department of Mechanical Engineering. Another product (fumigation chamber) will soon be launched by the Department of Electrical Engineering”, he said.
He also said that his administration had succeeded in blocking some financial leakages in such areas as school fees collection, payment of certificates and wage bill, adding that N4million was saved monthly in wage bills.
The rector said that those involved in the acts are currently facing disciplinary actions.
