Polytechnic Admission Shunned By Many Secondary School Leavers

Polytechnic admission are yearly shunned by numerous secondary school leavers for many reasoned best known to them, but the most common of all would be due to the disparity between the degree offered by them and that of the University.

The dichotomy between university and polytechnic graduates calls for government attention, as it appears to be one of the reasons many students are not willing to accept admission into Nigerian polytechnics.

Secondary School Leavers Shun Polytechnic Admission

Over the years, students seeking tertiary education always wanted to attend universities. Few who are in polytechnics or have graduated from polytechnics did so as a last resort.

Many in the sector are really trying to persuade prospective students that university and polytechnic certificates are truly the same; but experience they say is the best teacher has shown variance with the claim. Because of this, there are over one million admission spaces in the polytechnics and colleges of education, students are not willing to accept the offers but would rather wait an extra year of relevance or irrelevance at home.

Reasons why Secondary School leaves Shun Polytechnic admission

Investigations revealed some of the reasons why students shun the polytechnic admission instead to pursue a university dream, whether it would be fulfilled in time or not or never even fulfilled.

Polytechnic Entrance Exams

When a student sits for the UTME, cut-off marks for universities are always different from the polytechnics and colleges of education. Most times, while the university cut-off is 180, it is 150 for polytechnics and 130 for college of education. This sends wrong signals to admission seekers, telling them that the standards are certainly different.

Time Spent In Polytechnics

After the prospective students have been admitted in the polytechnic, they spend a minimum of five years on any course to obtain HND, while the university undergraduate spends four years, while some specialized courses, like engineering take five years, while architecture and medicine, take six and seven years respectively,still their Cumulative Grade Point Average, CGPA, is 4.0, while that of the university is 5.0.

Labour Market

It is in the labour market that the disparity is quite graphic. For instance, it is interesting to note that the HND holder in the civil service usually does not advance beyond salary GL 13; that means he/she cannot be a director. Even when a polytechnic graduate wants to get a Master’s degree, he is often denied admission until he does Post-Graduate Diploma, after which he is qualified.

Federal Government allocations

Even the Federal Government are still not helping matters, the allocation to the university is always higher than the polytechnics. Government is not helping matters, as it often ignores the agitations by polytechnics for months, but respond rapidly to universities.

Visitations

The Visitor of state-owned universities and polytechnics is the governor. But while the governor visits the university during convocations, he seldom visits the polytechnic throughout his tenure. The best he could do is to delegate the Deputy Governor or Commissioner for Special Duties to stand in. All these add to why many admission seekers prefer to remain at home until they get admission in the university. They see the polytechnic as the last resort when all attempts fail.

We should not be quick to blame our students, the bulk of the blame should go to our government and policymakers. Minister of Education could sponsor a bill in this regard to the National Assembly for amendment and the anomaly will stop. Until everyone begins to see polytechnic graduates and university graduates as the same, we will continue to have admission spill-over every year.