Ajayi: Polytechnic Proprietors Must Invest in Faculty, Curriculum to Produce Competitive Graduates
Dr. Busayo Ajayi is the founder of Ajayi Polytechnic, Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State. In this interview with select journalists, he explained why polytechnic proprietors must prioritise academic excellence by investing in faculty and curriculum to produce competitive graduates. Funmi Ogundare presents the excerpts:
What inspired you to establish Ajayi Polytechnic, and what kind of support do you provide students?
Today, one of my dreams that became a reality, is Ajayi Polytechnic, a private polytechnic, established, to raise giants through inclusive entrepreneurship and innovative technological education. If I must be frank, entrepreneurship and innovation education are now inevitable, judging by the number that are graduating from institutions of higher learning in the last few years, with at least, 60 to 70 per cent of them unemployed, either because they are unemployable, or other deficiencies. We believed that our entrance into the educational sector at this point would assist in plugging the dysfunctional tertiary education in Nigeria, which, over the years, has resulted in graduates who are not adequately prepared to face the challenges of building their entrepreneurial capabilities. At Ajayi Polytechnic, we are determined to train and produce technical and skilled manpower that will become industrial giants and providers of solutions to the myriads of economic problems of nations. Towards this end, we seek to provide education that will develop skills, knowledge, behaviour, abilities, entrepreneurial mindset, and understanding attitudes in our graduates. We have evolved procedures that would inculcate acceptable work habits in our graduates, in line with the best practices anywhere in the world, and shall continue to follow up on those procedures.
The polytechnic was approved and licensed to operate by the Federal Government of Nigeria and the National Board of Technical Education (NBTE) in May 2017. The institution also has all necessary approvals and fulfils procedures of Ekiti State Government’s Education Ministry, the National Business and Technical Education (NABTEB), in Technical and Vocational Training, as well as certification in September 2018. The vision of the polytechnic is to raise giants and produce skilled technicians and managers who are entrepreneurially driven. This is set to be achieved through inclusive entrepreneurship and innovative technological education. The objectives of the polytechnic, which, over the years, the institution has worked tirelessly to achieve, include training and producing giants who will be able to develop the skills needed for promoting businesses based on technology.
It is also to provide a well-trained workforce in the field of business, applied science, engineering, and technology, to provide necessary technical knowledge and skills for the nation’s agriculture, industrial, commercial and economic development while also providing the required training and skills that will equip the students to be enterprising and realise their self-worth. We are also out to provide necessary training in appropriate vocational skills that will make individuals, to be self-reliant, gainfully employed, or become an employer of labour, job creators, and
provide improvement in technical education through consistent research and development, as well as establish regular contact with other institutions and organisations globally.
How do policies and programmes implemented align with the overall vision of the polytechnic?
In a bid to continue to improve the quality of education in the polytechnic, the institution put in place policies and programmes that have greatly helped in achieving its vision. Some of these policies are approving and inculcating compulsory skill acquisition programmes in the curriculum of the polytechnic, which has made it compulsory that before any student can graduate and be certified to have graduated, such a student must have acquired at least one skill, and be able to demonstrate such skill in a practical manner that is required. Some of the available skills are laptop and phone repairs, fashion designs, cosmetology, solar installation, graphics designs, data analysis, computer programming, as well as web designing.
It has also become a standing policy at the polytechnic that no faculty member will be employed without first having, at the minimum, a master’s degree or already on it, with glaring evidence. The council of the polytechnic believes so strongly that policies such as these would ordinarily help improve the quality of education in the institution, and many of the faculty members employed are already researchers in the making. The policy of the polytechnic also has it that entrepreneurship training and seminars are infused into the curriculum, such that students are often given projects on starting a mini business and going through the entrepreneurial processes of sustaining such a business. What I call soft skills are also infused into the curriculum of the polytechnic so as to mould well-rounded students who can compete with their colleagues in the labour market, anywhere. The personal development of our students is very important to us. We monitor the students’ personal development. The management, too, monitors the impact of our programmes from time to time. The polytechnic also has a firm policy on internship and SIWES programmes. All our students are exposed to internships within and outside the campus through the ITF SIWES programmes, which enable them to acquire work experience before they graduate.
Our impact is feasible even though we are not making a noise about it. Our survey revealed that none of our graduates is unemployed after completing their education with us. We are raising solution providers, not problem compounders. The fact that we have been noticed and recognised despite not making noise about our strides is encouraging and will motivate us to do more. We are more determined to sustain our achievements.
How was the polytechnic able to maintain its corporate integrity despite the challenges in managing higher institutions in Nigeria?
Early this year, we won an integrity award from a very reputable source. We did not even know that we were being noticed. This further attests to the fact that we are genuinely maintaining our corporate integrity, vision and mission. From the onset, we resolved to do things in a different way. We are creating our own brand. We are innovative, and we have continued to encourage our students to think alike, creatively and innovatively, so that they and the institution can stay ahead of the industry. We resolved not to compromise our integrity as an institution. We conduct our business with utmost transparency and zero tolerance for student molestation, extortion, harassment and other vices that currently pervade many institutions in Nigeria. We are student-centred. In our institution, all we do, we do for our students. We are student-centred in terms of course delivery, policy-making and infrastructural development. Little wonder that I declared a 50 per cent scholarship for students during this period to help them have access to quality education. Excellence is important to us. As an institution, and more importantly as a brand, we strive hard to continuously improve the quality of delivery for our students so that they can compete with their counterparts anywhere.
What makes your institution stand out and a place to be for students?
The polytechnic can boast state-of-the-art laboratories for engineering, sciences and technology programmes. We get commendations from accreditation teams anytime they come over to check our resources. We boast of reliable, high-speed internet connectivity across the campus. We also operate one of the most reliable CBT hubs in the country. Besides, we have an extensive online library with access to open access resources, such as journals and textbooks. Our physical library is well-stocked with the latest academic resources. We have a specialised laboratory for programming, software engineering and data science. Our engineering workshops are well-equipped for hands-on training.
What do you think about how the quality of education can be improved?
Improving the quality of education, especially polytechnic education in Nigeria requires a collaborative effort from stakeholders. The government needs to increase the funding of education, particularly polytechnics, by allowing private polytechnics to access TETFUND. If you look at it, the number of private polytechnics in Nigeria keeps increasing on a daily basis, and students going to these schools are Nigerians, who will, in turn, come back to contribute their quota to the economy of Nigeria after graduation. The government needs to partner with private polytechnics so that students who choose to attend private polytechnics will not be at a disadvantage. We should correct the narrative that only students from rich families enrol in private institutions. This is not true. It would interest you to note that almost all public institution school fees are even higher than Ajayi Polytechnic school fees. I challenge you to do your research on this.
You will discover that the fee we charge students here is not up to the amount public polytechnics collect from their students. Despite this, we are providing quality education. The polytechnic proprietors and management also need to prioritise academic excellence in their entire citadels of learning by investing in their faculty, the institution itself, and the delivery of curriculum so that the polytechnic products can compete favourably with their counterparts from other levels of education. We need to ensure that we are developing our students’ knowledge, skills and behaviour.
We should stop making students think that higher institutions are certificate factories. One of the reasons why we are facing economic challenges in the country is because the majority of the stakeholders in the education sector are not doing the right thing. The industry should also be invited to collaborate on curriculum development so that they can have a robust curriculum that can cater for the needs of the industry, thereby producing graduates who are employable. All institutions need to genuinely imbibe entrepreneurship training and students’ personal development, including soft and hard skills acquisition. They should also provide internship assistance to polytechnic students, especially during SIWES or Industrial Attachment, so that they can gain more practical experience.
What opportunities exist for students of the polytechnic to compete globally?
We ensure that all our students acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviour that will make them employable in any part of the world. Some of our students are working for companies out of the country. All students at Ajayi Polytechnic, Ikere Ekiti, have the opportunity to graduate, alongside their ND or HND certificate, with at least one professional certification in Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, and Computer or Accounting. All students must acquire at least one trade before they graduate from the institution’s skill acquisition programme. They are also exposed to international collaboration, through the entrepreneurship programme of the institution. We work in partnership with various international institutions.
We have been using these partnerships and collaborations to provide platforms for our students to network, form strong ties, and learn from other countries towards building the capacity to compete globally. To ensure that less privileged students are not at a disadvantage, we do organise scholarship opportunities for students, coming into the polytechnic of up to 50 per cent of their tuition.
