The Rector of the Imo State Polytechnic, Umuagwo, Rev. Dr. Wence Madu, has attributed the delay in mobilizing graduates of the institution for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Scheme to the delay in constituting the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) by the Federal Government.
Reports had blamed it on the State Government’s lack of funding for the Polytechnic due to its free education programme. The paucity of funds is said to have given rise to the de-accreditation of all the Higher National Diploma (HND) courses offered in the institution.
But speaking to journalists in his office Monday, Rev. Madu disclosed that the late constitution of the NBTE board by the federal government resulted in the names of the graduates of the institution not being in the database for the NYSC after the Polytechnic had passed full accreditation of its courses.
He said however that the NBTE had since written to the NYSC to express regret and offered clarifications, even as he apologized to the affected candidates for the embarrassment caused them by the delay.
The rector assured the candidates that within few days, they would go back to NYSC camps when the Dean of Students Affairs of the Polytechnic must have come back with the corrected version of the their names.
He however decried the manner some politicians were playing politics with almost every issue in the education sector in the state and urged them to moderate their politics.
Rev. Madu insisted that the administration of Governor Rochas Okorocha had funded the polytechnic better than its predecessors.
According to him, since his assumption of office as the rector of the Polytechnic in 2012, the governor had spent over N200million to ensure 25 ND programmes received full accreditation from the NBTE.
He added that the governor had sponsored three accreditation visits in the last 24 months.
The Rector disclosed that before his appointment, only six HND courses received accreditation, but 10 more HND programmes had received accreditation totaling 16 courses since his appointment in 2012.
He maintained that his administration was on course to make the polytechnic the best in Nigeria “this is the only Polytechnic that has NBTE approval to offer Chemical Engineering in Nigeria. If we are not doing well, how can we have our Electrical Electronics Course accredited?
