Why the secondary school leavers shun admission into polytechnics

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. BscOver 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. Stakeholders in the sector are finding it difficult to persuade prospective students that university and polytechnic certificates carry the same weight; but experience shows variance with the claims.

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. Why students don’t want polytechnics: My investigations revealed some of the reasons why students do not want the polytechnics. They include the minimum school certificate qualifications requirement for tertiary education. While universities require five credits, including English and Mathematics, polytechnics are satisfied with four credits, to include Mathematics and English. Some polytechnics even accept a pass in English. Poly students, graduates react Some polytechnic students and graduates bared their minds: Bidemi Kalejaiye said: “After I had tried to get admission into the university for four years without success, I decided to go to the polytechnic. I, however discovered that a university graduate is not better than a polytechnic graduate.” Joshua Yinusa said: “I always desired university education. But after I tried to get admission into the university for two years without success, I accepted polytechnic admission since all my friends whom we did WASSCE together were either in the university or polytechnic. After my NYSC, I will still enrol for a degree course in the university because of the disparities between the polytechnic and university graduates.” Onome Ogheneovo said: “Since I couldn’t get what I desired, I decided to like what I have. I tried to get into the university for five years without success. But within a year, I tried the polytechnic, I got it. The requirements were easy to meet.” Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/04/secondary-school-leavers-shun-admission-polytechnics/