Idah Poly refutes claim on NBTE ban

The statement signed by Executive Secretary, Dr. Masa’udu Adamu Kazaure, said the ban was made following a petition written by students saying that there was low practical learning for engineering programmes in the polytechnic due to the unwieldy number of students in classes. “At the National Diploma (ND) level, the number of students enrolled was between […]

The statement signed by Executive Secretary, Dr. Masa’udu Adamu Kazaure, said the ban was made following a petition written by students saying that there was low practical learning for engineering programmes in the polytechnic due to the unwieldy number of students in classes.
 “At the National Diploma (ND) level, the number of students enrolled was between 300 and 400 students, violating of the approved carrying capacity for the programmes,” the statement said.
 However, the management and students of engineering department of the polytechnic are in dilemma following the ban.
 Both the management and students now wonder why the ban was placed on the courses when all the workshops and laboratories in the engineering department are functioning and are being put to use by the students.
 Some of the students who spoke to Daily Trust on the issue said they did not know whether their certificates would be recognised by employers, following the ban by the regulatory body.
 One of the students, Muhammed Umar, an ND 11 student of mechanical engineering department, told our reporter that they also engaged in practical learning outside theoretical learning.
 Umar, who will obtain his National Diploma this year, is worried if his certificate would be recognised by other institutions if he decides to further his education, adding: 
“We also learn practically in our department, you can visit our workshops and see for yourself because you would definitely know whether the workshop has been put to use or not. The NBTE should have come for investigation before imposing the ban.”
 The fear of Umar is not different from that of Euchi John who is an HND student of metrological department. He prays that the school would soon resolve the issue with the NBTE to get the ban lifted.
 John said that they combine both practical and theoritical knowledge in their curricular like it is done in other institutions.
 “I am just coming out of the examination hall after submitting my script and I am heading towards the workshop for practical examination. Since the publication, there has been anxiety here because we don’t know what will happen if the ban is not lifted.”
 Another student, who only gave his name as John, said the person who wrote that petition was mischievous, observing that the petition was intended to bring the school down.
 “I doubt if it was a student that wrote that petition because we also engaged in practical lessons. I don’t think if students are unable to face their studies, it should be blamed on the school.”
Investigation by our reporter revealed that an ND1 student of the institution who is currently under SIWES programme petitioned the NBTE boss that the polytechnic is not doing practical lessons, alleging that the workshops are perpetually locked.
 It was gathered that the student carried out the act based on his inability to answer questions from his colleagues from other schools in the place he is doing his SIWE programme.
 Meanwhile, it was reveled that there was no correspondence from the NBTE to the institution intimating them of the petition nor was the institution asked to respond to any query from the regulatory body before the ban was imposed.
 Our reporter who was at the school’s workshop observed students carrying out practical lessons while nowhere appeared to be perpetually locked as claimed in the petition.
 A lecturer in the engineering department, Iliyasu Obari, wondered why NBTE should put a ban on the admission into the engineering courses which it has accredited in the past, after inspecting the workshops and laboratories.
 According to him, all the workshops in the department are functioning with students engaging in practicals, adding that there may be something more to the ban because despite the equipment already present at the workshops, the management keeps acquiring new ones.
 Also speaking on the development, the dean, school of engineering, Ahon Martin, described it as funny to say that a 37-year-old institution does not have a functioning workshop or laboratory.
“I think there was a misinformation somehow. Otherwise, there is nothing that would lead to the ban. If you remove engineering courses from the institution, then, the school is finished. We are not bothered because we have the requirement.”
 Meanwhile, the rector of the institution, Dr Mathew Akpata, told Daily Trust that it was an official of the NBTE that informed him of the existence of a petition against the school from a student on SIWES programme.
 He said that before he could verify the allegation, he saw a publication that NBTE has directed JAMB to stop admission of students into the school’s engineering department.
 Akpata said that the NBTE has asked them to come with proofs of the practicals they have done as well as their defense to the petition, next week.
 He said: “We want them to set up a committee to come and look at our laboratories. We have about 32 labs in the school. How can they say that all the labs are closed? There are some departments, like metrological and foundry departments, we don’t have up to10 students there, yet, they claimed that we have 300 to 500 students in one class.”
 According to him, it worries the management that the entire engineering courses were stopped when the petition only affected civil engineering. He said that all the engineering courses have been accredited by the NBTE with only two on interim accreditation.
 The rector, while admitting that the school may have some inadequacies, said that the institution has turned out thousands of graduates from the engineering departments with some organisations writing letters commending graduates of the school working with them.
 He urged the student to remain calm as they are already handling the issue with the NBTE.
 The school, established in 1977, has over 20 departments while majority of the course are accredited by the NBTE.
There are five engineering courses in the school of engineering of the institution, namely, electrical/eletronic engineering, mechanical engineering, meturlogical engineering, civil engineering and foundry engineering.
There are over 10 workshops in the five departments of the school of engineering, among those visited are refrigerator/air-condition laboratory, fluid power laboratories, CNC laboratory, electronic laboratory, mechanical workshop, flitting and machine workshop.