The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) have moved to reposition Engineering and Technology Education in Nigeria to meet up with digital standards.
The president of COREN, Prof Abubakar Sadiq stated during a technical meeting at the NBTE headquarters in Kaduna yesterday that engineering practice and technology education should be repositioned at the level of polytechnics, monotechnics, technical colleges and the informal sector.
Lack of Synergy between NBTE and COREN
Prof Abubakar identified lack of synergy between COREN and NBTE as a gap affecting the profession, which he said, if rekindled, would result in greater achievements and development in the engineering sector.
He regretted that about 126 technical colleges in the country were not regulated, stressing that the colleges have virtually lost their quality and standards.
“Technical colleges feed into the monotechnics and polytechnics, where the end is almost dead in the colleges. The future of this country in the area of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is in jeopardy if we don’t sit down to address the gaps,” he said.
According to him, the informal sector is choked with millions of uncertified youths who lack the requisite competencies, skills and proficiencies.
National Skills Qualification framework
The president recalled that the NBTE has packaged the National Skills Qualification Framework, while COREN has produced about 18-sector skills councils.
“COREN will eventually have to accept to register the trainees when they are certified. This workshop is very key to identify areas where we and the NBTE must work together and bring other relevant key partners like the ITF, NABTEB, NUC, TETFund and other agencies and sectoral regulators in areas of engineering and technology,” he stated.
NBTE enlists COREN on review of engineering curriculum
The Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education, Prof Idris Bugaje, has described the current National Diploma and Higher National Diploma curriculum for engineering courses in polytechnics as not fit for the 21st Century.
He, therefore, expressed readiness to partner with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria to revamp the engineering curriculum in Nigeria’s secondary, polytechnic and mono-technic institutions.
The NBTE is a board of education that supervises, regulates and oversees educational programmes offered by technical institutions at secondary, polytechnic and mono-technic levels through an accreditation process in Nigeria, while COREN is a regulating body of engineers in the country.
Speaking while playing host to a delegation from the COREN, led by its President, Prof Sadiq Abubakar, in Kaduna, Bugaje promised that the board, under his leadership, would work with the COREN to reposition the profession to a global standard.
“We are committed to working together with COREN so that we can achieve the best for engineering in Nigeria.
“Some of our ND and HND engineering curriculums are no longer fit for the 21st century. They have not been reviewed in over 20 years. Our budget has been abysmally low to carry out the review,” he said.
Bugaje also lamented the current budget allocation of N50m from the Federal Government, saying it was inadequate for the review of the curriculum.
“We have for past years, on the average, received N50 million per annum to review over 300 curricula which is impossible.
“We are now reaching out to agencies, professional bodies to support review of curriculum. Nigeria cannot talk of industrialization when the curriculum is operating from the last century.
“We have written to The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure(NASENI).We are hopeful they may respond.
“We need to lean on COREN to lead the way for us; to raise funds for the review of curriculum so that we can do it jointly with COREN because they have the cream of the engineering professionals in COREN.”
He then appealed to COREN to spearhead the fundraising for the review of the curriculum.
“We need to lean on COREN to lead the way for us; to raise funds for the review of curriculum so that we can do it jointly with COREN because they have the cream of the engineering professionals in COREN,” he said.