Alhaji Mas'ud Elellu, a former Director at the Industrial Training Fund and Rector Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin speaks to DARE AKOGUN on admission challenges facing the institution and what to do to bring parity between the first degree and HND holders in the country.

What have you done so far since you assumed office as a rector six years ago?

By the grace of God, my administration has done so many things for this polytechnic. I will only mention just a few of them for now. On assumption of duty, we initiated a 3-point agenda for the proper management of the institution namely; staff orientation and development, infrastructural development and students' welfare.

Before I was appointed, I was the only staff who had ever travelled abroad in the college. The story has changed today. Through the staff development programme, about 300 staffers have so far been sponsored by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) for overseas training. That is a good exposure for them and I must also say, it has enhanced their performance at work.

The training has two faces. Some went for Masters and PhD programmes while others went for seminars and conferences.

Another area of interest is Staff Industrial Training, where certain numbers of staff proceed on Industrial Training in industries across the country during the long vacation. The experience gathered at the industries will be imparted on the students and this has helped the staff to update their knowledge with new innovations and best practices.

After the successful completion of the training, the school also organised a stakeholders meeting that involved National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) officials, Nigeria Labour Congress representatives, educationists and education administrators like the commissioner for education, industrialists and heads of tertiary institutions in the state and a host of others.

The stakeholders meeting came up with resolutions like funding and equipping the technical colleges to serve as catchment areas for the polytechnic students in order to move away from Humanity courses to achieve the real aim of establishing polytechnics and science and technology based institutions.

Some said that the external people were the ones dictating to the polytechnic on who to admit into various programmes, what do you have to say about this?

Let me state this sound and clear Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin would not bow to any external influence in offering admissions to students this year. We have set up a mechanism that eliminates all influences including human in the cause of selecting candidates for admission into programmes. And this mechanism has since commenced. The polytechnic is having admission challenges because it has become more attractive to prospective candidates in the recent time and this is due to its uninterrupted academic calendars for the last five years.

Sir, we don't use to hear about cultists and their activities in this polytechnic, what happens?

The seemingly peaceful atmosphere and reduction of vices in the institution could largely be as a result of the inclusion of students in the scheme of things that affects them in the institution. This approach show that students also matter in the day-to-day running of the school.

It is a common phenomenon in Nigerian higher institutions that students' union election is usually brutal because of vested interest from certain quarters, but since my assumption of office as rector in 2009, about five SUG elections had been held under peaceful atmosphere because the management gave them free hands to choose their leaders.

The institution always takes part in the election of union leaders by supervising the whole process from beginning to the end, where elections were held in auditorium, ballot boxes were placed in front of the rector and the counting done in the full glare of the students.

After the process, the losers will openly congratulate the winners and things will continue from there.

The management did not only give them free hand but went a little bit further, especially in the area of managing their funds and instilled the sense of responsibility in every SUG government in such a way that the SUG levies is put as part of school fees.

Management handover the money but always task them to present a proposal on how the money will be spent, and they have been forthcoming embarking on numerous projects within the school for the usage and benefits of the students.

It is worthy to mention that all full-time students of this polytechnic now have access to quality healthcare services through registration in the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS.

The students can access the service anywhere in the country once they present their students' identity cards. This was part of the institution’s effort to improve students' welfare and ensure they are learning under a friendly environment.

Another area of interest is the introduction of Entrepreneurship Development Centre. This is also to take care of the students' future, especially in the acquisition of special skill. The Entrepreneurship Centre trains every student on an area of interest to acquire one skill or the other so that the students will not be job seekers but job creators in the future.

The management is also proposing a new hostel accommodation for its increasing student population that would be financed by a World Bank organisation.

We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the organisation on the proposed hostel project. The growing student population had grown beyond that at the inception of the hostels constructed in the 1970s, which are obsolete.

These hostels are not only old but inadequate, costing the institution a lot of money in maintenance.

The seemingly dichotomy between Bsc and HND holders in the country has been a matter of discuss in different fora for a very long time, how do you think this can be resolved?

The unconstitutional dichotomy created between university and polytechnic graduates to absence of industries caused by some people in Nigeria for their own selfish interest.

This dichotomy became visible when manufacturing companies that hitherto look out to employ polytechnic graduates started folding up. There shouldn’t be an issue on the discrepancies because each certificate should carve a niche for itself based on the difference in the method of acquiring knowledge.

The kind of knowledge been impacted in the polytechnics is purely practical oriented which enables the students to have hands on experience on what they are being taught in the classrooms, while the university knowledge is largely theoretical.

We should not be talking about disparities because each based on how the curriculum is designed. If Nigerian economy is buoyant enough as it used to be in the 70s, no polytechnic graduates will be looking for job in the public sector.

Government as a matter of economic strategy, should stimulate the economy such that the industries and factories will also grow and by encouraging entrepreneurship and provide friendly environment for private sector.

So that the HND holders will have enough place to practice their skills, and there will not be need to struggle for ministries work that is already not even enough for the university graduates.