The Federal Government has been urged to put an end to the perceived discrimination against polytechnic education in Nigeria to boost the production of technologically driven and skilled graduates required to drive the economy of the country.

Chairman of the British Transatlantic Polytechnic, Akure, Ondo State, Dr Joe Obe, who appealed during the 2024/2025 matriculation ceremony of 120 fresh students of the polytechnic, said that the majority of Nigerian society had continued to give the wrongly perceived polytechnic education a wrong perception.

He, therefore, urged the federal government to grant polytechnics degree-awarding powers. Obe stated that the solution to the current socio-economic development is to produce a huge number of highly skilled graduates that can develop the micro-economy system through entrepreneurship and skills innovations.

He, however, described most of the Nigerian university graduates as theory-centric and lacking adequate functional skills required to run the engine of the economy.

He said: “With the unprecedented level of brain drain accompanied by the popular japa era, Nigeria is fast losing its limited skilled labourers in engineering, technology and Information Technology (IT), a situation that portends great danger to the economic growth and development of Nigeria.

“By allowing the polytechnics to have degree-awarding powers, more students will be encouraged to study in the polytechnic and, by so doing, increase the nation’s manpower.

Obe, while congratulating the matriculating students, assured them that at the British Transatlantic Polytechnic, Akure, they would break the discrimination barriers, as their training is also enriched with the British curriculum, which gives them leverage to compete favourably with their counterparts anywhere in the world.

According to him, “graduates of the British Transatlantic Polytechnic, Akure, will be able to stand tall and get jobs mostly in Britain, Europe and the United States (U.S.) as they are already exposed to the internationalised curriculum and job-ready training, including job interview and employability skills. We are breaking boundaries and barriers to job opportunities and systemic discrimination.”