NANFeatures/Vol.11/No.90/2017 (June 14)
Addressing the dearth of artisans and technicians in Nigeria
A News Analysis by Monday Ijeh, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
Research has shown that technical colleges across the country during and after colonial era had 75 per cent of their curricula rich in training and they were rated excellent in technical skill development then.
During the period, students concentrated on practical repairs, production, dismantling and coupling of various engineering tools and devices.
Experts, however, observe that successive government’s educational policies from the mid 1970s had robbed the nation of such vital technical skill development system.
According to them, technical colleges are no longer recognised as the bedrock of engineering profession with the introduction of polytechnics.
They observe that the focus of the policy formulators has been that polytechnics’ graduates can as well handle basic engineering work such as design, production, testing and material sourcing.
But the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) observes that engineers, the technologists, the technicians and craftsmen are integral part of technology for efficient service delivery.
According to the council, for a technological balanced society, the ratio for engineers, technologists, technicians and craftsmen should be 1:2:4:16, respectively.
The council expressed concern that Nigeria has, however, turned out more engineers than artisans, technicians and craftsmen.
For instance, Mrs Idiat Amusu, a member of the council said Nigeria had 32,376 registered engineers to engage 6,093 registered technologist, technicians and craftsmen.
She said due to this imbalance, 60 per cent to 70 per cent of skilled jobs in the country were handled by foreigners from neighbouring West African countries.
In view of this, Mr Kashim Ali, President of COREN, blamed the paucity of indigenous artisans and craftsmen in Nigeria on the dearth of technical colleges.
Ali, at a meeting organised by the council to address crisis of technical manpower shortage in Nigeria recently in Abuja, said artisans and technicians constituted important component of the value chain in the engineering service delivery.
He said COREN had, in 2010, carried out a technical audit of more than 300 technical colleges across the country to address the dearth of indigenous technicians and craftsmen.
“It was found that 98 per cent of the 300 technical colleges visited are in very deplorable conditions.
“Based on the reports, the council held a retreat in Calabar in 2013 to examine the status of the technical education in the country.
“The retreat noted that the dearth of technical colleges was the cause of the non-existence of qualified craftsmen and technicians in Nigerian engineering sector,’’ he said.
He observed that the Abuja meeting was to advance the discussions and build on the foundation started in 2013 and create a platform for stakeholders to contribute toward revamping technical colleges.
According to him, the dearth of indigenous artisans and technicians in the engineering sector is a major economic setback.
“It was estimated that the country loses more than N900 billion to foreign artisans and technicians as the local built environment fails to generate the required manpower.
“More than 80 per cent of masons, carpenters, steel fabricators, plumbers, electricians, painters and tilers found on construction sites across the country are foreigners,’’ he claimed.
In the light of this, Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola solicited more focused skill acquisition system in Nigeria to improve aging infrastructure and provide sustainable jobs for the youth in the country.
He said the Federal Government was currently investing heavily in infrastructure, observing that N1.8 trillion was allocated to capital projects in the 2016 budget.
In his view, Prof. Danladi Matawal, the Director-General, Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI), said no nation could develop without vocational and technical education.
He said the dearth of artisans in Nigeria had resulted in the importation of a significant number of artisans and craftsmen from neighbouring West African countries.
Matawal said the influx of artisans from these countries to Nigeria to perform jobs that indigenes should have performed had constituted a challenge.
He, however, noted that the Nigeria’s shortage of technical personnel could be mitigated without having to recruit technical education manpower from other countries.
He advocated aggressive training of more technical personnel by creating incentives to boost school enrolment for technical subjects.
He also called on COREN to visit technical colleges for the accreditation of courses as being done for universities and polytechnics.
He said the call by COREN on the National Youth Service Corps to stop the deployment of engineering personnel to non-technical secondary schools as teachers was a step in the right direction.
“Technical manpower shortage is the main driver of technical education manpower shortages because the technical educator must also be a technically trained person with adequate practical experience,’’ he said.
To address the challenge, Minister of Education Mallam Adamu Adamu said the ministry would continue to collaborate with stakeholders and render support in all spheres of endeavour in the educational sector.
Participants at the Abuja meeting, therefore, agree that the current realities require that the country, in its quest for industrialisation, should focus on vocational and technical manpower development and embrace infrastructural management and maintenance culture for national industrial growth.(NANFeatures)
**If used, please credit the writer as well as News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)