The Chairman of the Governing Council of the British Transatlantic Polytechnic, Akure, Dr Joe Obe, on Thursday, urged the Federal Government to end the existing dichotomy between university and polytechnic graduates in Nigeria.
Obe who made this call during the Matriculation ceremony of the newly admitted 120 students of the Polytechnic, said the Federal government can put an end to the perceived discrimination of Polytechnic education in the country by granting polytechnic degree awarding powers.
The Governing Council chairman explained that there is need to maintain fairness in dealing with issues relating to the products of the two categories of tertiary education.
According to Dr Obe, majority of the Nigerian society wrongly perceived polytechnic education as a second-class education system compared to the University, saying this has been discouraging production of technologically skilled graduates required to drive the Nigerian economy.
He maintained that the solution to the current socio-economic development is to produce huge number of highly skilled graduates that can develop the micro-economy system through entrepreneurship and skills innovations.
Obe noted that most Nigerian University graduates are theory-centric and lack adequate functional skills required to run the engine of the economy.
