By Cross Udo, Abuja
The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has endorsed the establishment of the National Polytechnics Commission by the National Assembly.
ASUP has also expressed surprise at moves to establish a Commission for Technical Education, stressing that it viewed such a move as a mere name change without the desired impact on the regulation of Polytechnics in Nigeria.
In a statement yesterday signed by its President, Shammah Kpanja, ASUP reiterated its support for the unbundling of the current mixture of institutions under the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the extraction of tertiary institutions from the mix to a dedicated Commission for effective regulation.
The statement read, “We have been reading reports from different media outlets on establishing a Commission to regulate technical and vocational education in the country.
“This role is currently within the purview of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), established in 1977. Nigerian Polytechnics (and Monotechnics) represent the tertiary education institutions under the regulation of the NBTE.
“With the exponential growth in the number and profile of Polytechnics over the past 4 decades, as well as the explosion in the numbers of institutions under the regulatory regime of the NBTE, our Union has been making demands (and rightfully so) for the establishment of a separate Commission to regulate the tertiary education institutions found in the current mix of over 700 institutions under the NBTE.
“This will ensure improved regulation of these tertiary institutions and align with the practice in the country’s other two tertiary education sub-sectors.
“We therefore threw our weight in support of the recent efforts of the National Assembly to establish a National Polytechnics Commission through a bill in the House of Representatives (SB 673) sponsored by Idu Igariwey.
“This effort is coming after several failed legislative efforts in the past on the same subject. The bill is awaiting its final reading and passage at the House of Representatives after stakeholders expressed their full support for it during the public hearing in August 2024.
“More so, the bill had the support of the Federal Ministry of Education as the establishment of the Commission is clearly captured in the approved Road Map for the Education sector covering 2024 to 2027.
“We are therefore surprised to read of moves to establish a Commission for technical education. We view this as a mere name change without the desired impact on regulating Polytechnics in Nigeria.”
ASUP said it viewed the development as self-serving and a distraction capable of undermining the House of Representatives laudable efforts on the same subject.
“Our Union is therefore reiterating our support for the unbundling of the current mixture of institutions under the NBTE and the extraction of tertiary institutions from the mix to a dedicated Commission for effective regulation.
“This is the noble aim of the bill currently before the National Assembly, and it is essential to clarify this. We shall equally explore all acceptable avenues to bring this to fruition for the benefit of Nigeria.
“The Federal Ministry of Education should equally maintain a consistent position on issues of this nature, having supported the bill during the public hearing and avoid the distraction of a “mere change of name” which the proponents of the National Commission for Technical Education represent,” it concluded.
