University Don laments neglect of technical and vocational education in Nigeria.

The head of the Department of Technical Education at the Kaduna Polytechnic, Dr. Mohammed Aliyu, said on Monday that the deliberate neglect of technical and vocational education in the country could affect the country’s march towards technological advancement.

Aliyu stated this in Akure, the Ondo State capital at the opening of a five-day Capacity Building Workshop for Technical and Vocational Education Teachers on Pedagogical Skills.

The programme was organised by the Africa Development Fund-Assisted Skills Training and Vocational Education Project in collaboration with the National Board for Technical Education.

The workshop, according to the ADF-Assisted Project Coordinator, Dr. Ebele Nwofor, is meant to build the capacity of technical and vocational teachers.

Nwafor also said that it was only when the teachers’ capacity were enhanced through proper training that they could pass on necessary knowledge to their students.

Aliyu enumerated the various challenges confronting technical and vocational education in the country to include lack of adequate infrastructure, lack of competent personnel and inadequate technical institutions.

He said the number of technical-based colleges was still very negligible when compared to the high number of secondary schools in the country.

He noted with concern that the government and the stakeholders were still not serious with the need to establish more technical colleges.

He highlighted the importance of technical education system in a nation and noted that no country could survive without paying serious attention to technical and vocational education.

He said, ‘‘If you look at the way things are, how many technical colleges do we have in Nigeria. How many secondary schools do we have? Can you give me the comparison?

“This is to tell you how the government and the stakeholders are still not aware of the need to establish more technical colleges,” he said.

However, Aliyu said the National Board for Technical Education and other stakeholders had been trying to reposition, hence the intervention of agencies like the ADF-Assisted Project.

Nwofor, in her speech, said the project which covered 10 schools was being sponsored by the African Development Bank in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education. The Federal Government pays 11 per cent counterpart fund while ADB provides the rest.

She said under the project, six selected teachers from each of the schools participated in train the trainers workshop, saying the Northern edition was held last month while the Akure’s edition was for the three remaining schools.

The participants were drawn from the Federal Science and Technical Colleges in Ikare Akoko, Ondo State; Uyo, Akwa Ibom State and Ohanzu, Abia State.