By Dada Ahmed
Ilorin
The Rector, Kwara State Polytechnic (Kwarapoly), Ilorin, Engr. Abdul Jimoh Mohammed has stressed the need for members of the public to change their perception of Lecturers and students of Polytechnics in the country.
This is because polytechnic education is not inferior to other educational institution in Nigeria.
He made the call while speaking during media interaction on the first year of his administration in Ilorin on Thursday.
According to him,Public perception of polytechnic education is a one the challenges militating against polytechnic education in the country.
He said: “An average Nigerian will prefer to pay N250,000 as university education fees per semester than N60,000 for polytechnic education fees for the 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.
“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.’
While stressing the need to flush out bad eggs in the Polytechnics, he argued that “if there’s punishment for erring staff, why not reward for productive staff?”
” We are working toward 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.”
The Rector, however, called for adequate funding, proper monitoring of projects and research, staffing as well as ensuring that right staff were appointed into right positions,among others in the polytechnics.
The rector, who said that his one year in office witnessed various developmental strides added that the institution 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 further revealed.
