The minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman has advocated for a “stand alone” Federal Technical Colleges in the country which will concentrate on teaching Nigerian students the requisite technical skills to become self-employed.
The minister who was speaking during a meeting with Principals of Federal Technical Colleges and other Stakeholders on challenges and issues affecting Skills Development and Acquisition in Nigeria, wondered why ‘Science’ was attached to the Technical Colleges adding that this has disrupt the vision and mission of the school.
He stated that the Technical colleges were meant to concentrate purely on technical specialised hands on training for students.
“We don’t know at what stage the technical colleges became science and tech. They were supposed to be Federal Government Technical schools. At what stage was science smuggled in, I don’t understand. Not that science is not important. It is key to everything we do. But that is not the agenda of these institutions.
“Those who will do science programmes, go to regular colleges and continue that. Students who find themselves in technical schools come purely for technical specialise hands on training. It was clearly a mistake in whatever stage this decision was taken,” he said.
The minister promised that the ministry will meet to take a decision on the matter to ensure that the technical colleges begin to produce students with technical skills that will benefit the nation.
“With the rest of my colleagues; Minister of State, Perm sec and director, we will take a hard look at this decision. Now, because of it, the information we are getting is the enrollment into the technical component of the school is low.
“ This is very important for us because the technical colleges are at the heart of what this ministry and the government want to achieve for this country. It is at the heart of the education system. As we have always said, when we are able to achieve in education, the nation succeeds. This sector provides the primary manpower and if they falter, it impacts all sectors of the country,” he said.
He urged the teachers of the colleagues to buckle up in their duties as many Nigerian students on the streets with no jobs are banking on them.
“For our level of development, your work is very crucial because it provides that level of manpower that is needed in the country at this level of development. Your work provides for these young boys and girls who hound the country, need not be in the streets if they are trained well. If they attend technical colleges with hands-on training in various skills. If the technical colleges are attractive, people will not bother to visit the university and when they do, it is to deepen the knowledge that they have acquired from the colleges.
“Our expectation is that when the technical colleges are established to provide particular education; technical education for the country and because of the fact that two thirds of students don’t proceed to tertiary education, the technical education will be attractive to them but at last the information we have gotten is not the case,” he lamented.
Tahir lamented that with the Technical School being termed, “Federal Science and Technical School”, many of the students move to the ‘Science’ instead of the ‘Technicals’.
“We have low students in the technical and higher in science. Even worse, we are running out of teachers with the right background to drive the technical aspect of the work. There is nothing that can be such a great disservice to the essence of establishing these institutions than for us to find ourselves in this situation. To the extent that from the report I read from NBTE, technical colleges are failing accreditation,” he said.
Tahir stated that the ministry in the next few months will come up with policies that will enable the country to mop up street children and ensure they are trained with skills to make them self-employed.
“We need to ensure that the technical colleges are well focused on various trades and we will mop up all the students. That is the answer to their problem, to give them skills and hands-on training. This is what we have to do. We are coming up with policies very soon that require us to go out there and mop the bulk if not all these children who are out there in the streets,” he said.
