Graduates of the Imo State polytechnic, Umuagwo temporarily demobilized in the last batch of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, will be re-mobilized soon.
This revelation was made known by the rector of the polytechnic, Rev. Fr. Dr. Wence Madu recently while reacting on a recent newspaper publication alleging that the NYSC has banned graduates of the institution till 2015. The rector dismissed this as false and clarified that National board of Technical Education (NBTE), which is the regulatory body of polytechnic education in Nigeria and the NYSC over proper data capturing of accreditation of Higher National Diploma (HND) courses in the state polytechnic.
Rev. Fr. Madu stated that the situation has been rectified long before now and that some of those affected have been re-mobilized while the remaining will soon join their colleagues; and therefore apologized to both the Imo Poly graduates and parents for the minor inconvenience.
Refuting the allegation of the ban of Imo Poly graduates by the NYSC till 2015, the rector maintained that HND graduates of the polytechnic will no longer experience any such hindrance in subsequent NYSC scheme beginning from 2014. He assured parents and students of the institution that “polytechnic does not run degrees not approved”, and that the unfortunate incident in 2013 will not repeat itself from 2014.
Rev. Fr Dr. Madu admitted that the anomaly was due to administrative lapses because most of the accredited courses were not included in the NBTE communication to NYSC. “It was a problem of data capturing. We got accreditation after mobilization. The difference is the time the thing was captured and the time it was communicated to NYSC. But now the official copy has been communicated,” the rector explained.
The rector further revealed that the crux of the matter was that, over the years before his emergence as rector, accreditation of most of the HND courses had elapsed, only for the school to succeed in renewing them recently. He added that this was made possible by the supportive role the Imo state governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, whose government has been of tremendous help to the success story of the institution: and that without which nothing would have been possible . “I don’t think any other government would have funded the polytechnic the way this government has done”, the rector emphasized.
The rector regretted that those who are bent on damaging the image of the school failed to capture that there administrative lapse between the NBTE and NYSC over the Imo Poly graduates has been rectified and that some of the affected corps members are already re-mobilized.
He advised media practitioners to shun sensationalism, embrace responsible journalism in their practice and to “take extra pain to verify information
