ASUP laments utter neglect of Polytechnics

National President, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Mr Anderson Ezeibe has lamented the “utter neglect” of the technical and vocational education sub-sector in the country.

The union leader made this known on Thursday at the ASUP’s 98th NEC meeting in Jos. The polytechnic lecturers who called on the Federal Government to change the tide and improve the quality of technical manpower in the country, claimed that the institutions had suffered continued neglect over the years.

“Public Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology in Nigeria have continued to reel in heavy funding deficit and total neglect. “The needs assessment report of 2014 as it affects the funding deficit in the sector is yet to be implemented and the rot in the sector continues to deepen.

“Capital appropriations from the nation’s budget over the years have been grossly inadequate, coming in trickles, while in the states, institutions are only surviving on the benevolence of interventionist agencies, particularly TETFund,” he said.

Mr Ezeibe also highlighted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on polytechnics, stressing that none of the institutions could cope with the basic safe resumption requirements like adequate security, appropriate sanitation, hygiene, as well as proper medical provision.

“We don’t have any quarantine or isolation centres in the event that when school resumes students can isolate in them, in case of any infection. “There is nothing on ground to show that our campuses are safe for academic activities to resume,” he maintained.