The rector of the Kwara State Polytechnic, Engineer Abdul Jimoh Mohammed, has lamented the inadequate funding that has resulted in ‘only modest achievements’ in the Institution.
Mohammed, who was speaking to journalists on Wednesday as part of activities for the 29th convocation ceremony of the school, stated that like any other institution, the polytechnic has problems with funding, especially the current economic situation of the country and ever-increasing running costs.
He noted that the polytechnic needed a huge sum of money for accreditation of programmes and rehabilitation of aging infrastructure.
“On accreditation of programmes, quite a huge sum of money, running into millions of Naira, is needed each time the Polytechnic faces accreditation or re-accreditation of its National Diploma and Higher National Diploma programmes
“The team from the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has always insisted on meeting the minimum requirements in order to sail through each accreditation exercise. Meeting these requirements is always a serious financial challenge for the institution.
“On aging structures, many of the buildings in the Polytechnic are very old, as old as the institution itself. Although renovation takes place from time to time, lack of sufficient funds makes it difficult to carry out comprehensive renovation and rehabilitation of the obsolete structures”, he said.
The rector therefore appealed to the state government to assist the institution with adequate funding to enable it to perform optimally.
A total of 8,350 graduates, with 3,000 HND graduates and 5,350 OND graduates, including part-time graduates of the institution, would be graduating during the convocation ceremony.
The rector also added that a total of 102 graduates bagged distinction and upper credit.
We Have Problems Of Funding, Kwara Poly Rector Laments is first published on The Whistler Newspaper