‘NDE, ITF Takes Over Poly Mandates in Nigeria’
*Want them merge
The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu has accused the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and Industrial Training Funds (ITF) of taking over the mandates of the Polytechnic sub sector.
He said this was because the Polytechnics in Nigeria have abandoned her mandates of advancing skills and technology in the country.
Adamu who was represented by the Executive Secretary (ES) of National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) prof. Idris M. Bugaje said while Polytechnics in the country is jumping awarding National Diploma (ND), Higher National Diploma (HND) and even Bsc, the duo of NDE and ITF asumed her position.
The Minister further advocated for the merger of NDE and the ITF so as to create National Skills Fund.stresing that what Nigeria need is a paradigm shift.
He said in 2019, Bangladesh exported about 2.5 million skilled construction workers to Saudi Arabia, adding Nigeria should have jump at such opportunity if not for the situation with the Polytechnics system.
Speaking at a round table organised by ASUP in Abuja recently with the theme: “Repositioning Nigeria’s polytechnics for national relevance and global competitiveness.” said craftsmen in UK earn three times what a professor earns in the UK.
According to him, “the ITF and the NDE are abandoning their primary mandates and they are doing things which are supposed to be done by the polytechnics. The ITF was established primarily to support SIWES (Industrial training for students instead, ITF is opening training centers all over the country.
“The NDE is doing the same, taking away the mandate of the polytechnics. These trainings should be brought back to the polytechnics.
“I am proposing that the federal government should merge ITF and NDE to create what we call National Skills Fund, and it shall be another window of one of the cheapest centres besides Tetfund, so that you can upgrade your skill training facilities in different parts of the country. They will also be able to support industrial training exams. So we need a new paradigm shift”.
Speaking on the need to advance skills development in the country, Malam Adamu said “Bangladesh in 2019 exported 2.5 million skilled construction workers to Saudi Arabia. Nigeria should be able to do more. We are ever closer to Saudi Arabia than Bangladesh.
“The polytechnics are not jumping on these opportunities. We are busy doing ND, HND and trying to do Bsc with universities. We are abandoning the skills and it is the skills that the money is. Most craftsmen in the UK earn three times what a professor earns in the UK. A minimum of 15 pounds per month. The professor only earns 5000 pounds per month”.
