A Survey of Engineering Education in Nigeria Essay

Sustainable reading at local, regional and global scales is perhaps the most daunting altercate that humanity has constantly go about. Knowledge and its application argon two elements common and central to individu entirelyy of the scotch, social and environmental pillars of sustainable beginment and the m whatever approaches growed at achieving sustainability.Solutions to the study sustainability problems of the 21st century including poverty alleviation, decoupling of frugal growth and environmental impact, re stark nakedable energy sources, desertification, diminishing ecosystem services, biodiversity maintenance and use, climate change, and the risk of megacities all critically require knowledge from scientific enquiry and appropriate technologies. Those solutions atomic issue 18 visible(prenominal) to whatsoever society which invests fittingly in the optimum raising and learn of its organises. The role of studyal out(a)comes in the promotion of economic gro wth has farseeing been recognized by economists and early(a) true(p) deal.Early researchers like Smith atomic number 18 cited by Okoye (1989) to grow noned the acquisition and use of the abilities of all inhabitants or members of a society through program line as part of its economic fortune. technology education has been an integral part of domainal development strategies in many societies because of its impact on productivity and economic development. G leaday cited by Eze (2008) do a serious case about design education remediate for the Ameri apprise Society in particular and for the global bena in general.She argued that if engineers ar to compete successfully in the global human beings in the 21st century and establish the profession as a attraction in solving most of the humanss problem of infrastructural development, engine room education essentialiness embrace the unavoidableness for pro variation and do so rattling quickly. Central to this innovatio n, the presentation explained that the institutional understanding for the dogged established methods of practicing engineering and educating future engineers be in critical subscribe to of reforms, if the profession must dwell relevant.If building blocked States that project almost sunk public infrastructure can be invited to any engineering education improvement summit, then Nigeria who is in search of proficient and economic execution shift that could rival that of the 1st world countries come the year 2020 needs organic overhaul in engineering administration and training. Nigerian institutions turn out large number of engineering graduates e truly year. Yet, non many of our engineers are involved in many of the engineering activities going on in most parts of the country.Why?We shall examine briefly the qualification of the Nigerian engineer as a basis for determining his relevance and meet placement in committee of global professionals. THE EDUCATION OF THE NIGER IAN unionise Ideally, an engineer has to be trained in a broad horse sense so as to be able to synthesize ideas, design bracing systems, plants and machinery and manage a complex mixture of resources including men, materials, machinery and m aney. In pursuance of this, the Nigerian engineer begins his introduction to formal learning much like any former(a) person from the very basic forms i. e. the nursery and primary schools.He then proceeds to the secondary school which is where some diversification begins. Here, the pupil gets his eldest introduction to basic science and technology ideas and concepts. This likewise mark the beginning of the do where the individual attains cognition, acquires process skills and develops scientific attitudes which will enable him think critically. After the secondary take, he then progresses to the third stage. The intro qualification to an engineering program had been re persuasioned by Oluka et al. This involves a minimum of louvre c redits in ordinary level subjects which must include math and the basic sciences.With this qualification, candidates apply through the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) who conducts a national examination for applicants. Final admission is given by JAMB on recomm poleation by the Universities based on certain policies which include merit, educationally disadvantaged states and discretion. For direct entry students, admission is given without any examination. However, the candidates must hurt the higher school certificate or GCE advanced level in three subjects-Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.Candidates must undergo at least(prenominal) 6 months of industrial Attachment under the SIWES program sponsored by the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Oluka et al (1999). It is in the Universities that the engineer gets properly present with engineering theories and practical via the regular forms of formal training (lectures, seminars, projects etc) and interactions with e xperienced people in the field of study.The selection and organization of program content, curriculum capital punishment and evaluation, the development, distri preciselyion and use of learn materials,standard of examinations among other things go a long trend in determining the effectiveness of this process and how the manpower of engineers being produced through it is able to meet the demands and yearnings of a fast changing world.ROBLEMS OF design EDUCATION IN NIGERIA THE CURRICULUM OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND ENGINEERING STUDENTS EVALUATION As discussed above, some factors such as the curriculum and how it is implemented, facilities available, regular government policies regarding education, general standard of education in Nigeria affect the fiber of the engineers that are produced by the system.While the domain of education in Nigeria has been development largely because of the need to have adequate manpower to meet the challenges of making the country great and to m eet the demands of the 21 century, unfortunately, there is no pre suffice efforts to use education to prepare the Nigerian engineer to meet the on the contemplate requirements of entrepreneurs in blue chip companies in the country or to withstand for him egotism and as well create melody for others given the supposed wealth of knowledge.This plainly means that the dydx in the classroom require some modifications so as to translate to putting food on the Nigerian engineers table in the event of job unavailability upon graduation. What curbs now is as dangerous as it is disheartening. An average Nigerian graduate engineer is considered half(a) baked or unemployable because they have been claimed not to stimulate adequate competencies required by their end users.This has thrown a big challenge to tertiary education and training of future engineers in Nigeria. It is noteworthy that the problems cerebrate to curricula became noticeable soon later Nigerias independence from co lonial command in 1960. By the mid-1960s, educators and educational planners were rethinking Nigerias education system and in particular, the curriculum being taught in the schools.The question is has Nigeria educational policy been subject of providing the needed manpower development to stir the nations socio-economic exigencies left(p) by the colonial masters? Eze (2008) affirms that an independent critique by an natural project managing firm put the contri andion of engineering construction of all categories and dimensions to Nigerias GDP at only 1. 5%. This is compared with 6% which the sphere contributes to GDP in most developed and developing economies.For example, engineering associate activities account for about 8% of the UKs GDP, 16% in nation of Irelands, 11% of the United Arab Emirates, 6% GDP in India and South Africa respectively. The soft pace of industrialization and proficient growth in Nigeria can be attributed to the widening gap between science and techno logy as a result of inability of engineering education programme to adequately expend the scientific ideas to promote technology.Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN) is a body that have worked hard to translate national and educational objectives into curricula and teaching objectives through the development of curricula designed to help individuals attain cognition, acquire process skills and develop scientific attitudes which will enable them to think critically, manage and use available resources, to in effect adapt to their environment, assume responsibilities and fulfill domestic, economic, social, and political roles.The council for the regulation of engineering in Nigeria (COREN) can as a matter of urgency seek any needed take over from government and institute an active machinery to give a critical appraisal of the engineering education curriculum with a view to identifying defects and devising original solutions. Today, there are many institutions made up of eig hty nine universities owned by government and private organizations, several(prenominal) colleges of education and agriculture and mono/polytechnic that produce graduates for the a couple of(prenominal) job situations that are available in the country.The graduate engineer is therefore faced with the difficulty of readily gaining jobs promptly after school due to the deficiencies in the curriculum and evaluation pattern in which he was m hoared. whatsoever of the problems associated with the underway curricular and evaluation methods include but not limited to the next * They are based on a foreign model involving archetype conditions ( faculty, equipment, infrastructure, training opportunities, etc) that are not slow duplicated in developing countries.* thither is a shortage of highly competent indigenous teaching and support staff with h sufficient wide practical experience of technological intricacies. * The curricular seems to exhibit some imbalance between pure and use sciences and the practical engineering and technology realities, project/business management and innovation concepts and entrepreneurship skills development. * The duration of the sectional semesters for the teaching of engineering courses is very short to allow for good comprehension and application by the students.* The student evaluation and evaluate is almost dependent on his performance on theoretical examinations bleak of consolidating practical orientation. SELECTION OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS Given a very good curriculum, engineering education administration must be free from mediocrity. My booking in teaching and invigilating engineering students examinations raised issues which have continue to nonplus my mind as a lecturer, and as one who is expected to devil inputs to the production of good engineers.A good role of the students find it very difficult to understand the basic principles of engineering courses and hence put a very poor performance in the examinations. Th is is a pointer that they are not supposed to have been admitted into the engineering school in the start-off place. In event of escaping a dependable and credible admission scrutiny, COREN in conjunction with the engineering school administration should device a process of pruning the engineering misfits and placing them in other disciplines where they would perform smash and subsequently contribute to nation building.The problem recognition, formulation and solution task of an engineer really calls for a little above average students who will later on consider societal repercussions and constraints inwardly a complex landscape of old and new ideas. With this, Nigerian engineering graduates will be dissociated from the report of Okadara (1984) and Oladeji (1994) who variously showed that of the initial years of tertiary education, majority of graduates (86. 6%) found work within two months of searching, but as their institution grew older, the length of period they needed t o find usage increased.I strongly believe that institutions remain the same but the whole step of students that pass through it experience slack degeneration due to unwarranted compromise. INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT Suppose the right students are admitted into the engineering schools and their training is guided by a well structured and societal problem-responsive curriculum, the problem of poor or absence of state-of-the-art laboratories, instructional materials and a conducive engineering academic environment must also be arrested.The situation why engineering graduates find it difficult to guarantee adequate job after their graduation is not unconnected with infrastructural handicaps in their institutions which is no fault of theirs. Consequently, many engineering graduates do not possess appropriate job competencies required by employers. Some could not develop their personality traits due to the absence of showcaseable infrastructure to spur germinal and innovative strat egies that could promote the engineers qualities and enhance his proficiency.Unfortunately, several end users of engineering graduates skills have had to spend huge sums of money to retrain these graduates to suit their business after the completion of their programmes of study, even though they were selected at the oscilloscope of excellent and imposing certificates. This certainly calls for engineering curriculum innovation and renewal, better monitoring and evaluation of engineering students, as well as immediate overhaul of engineering schools infrastructure in Nigeria.Such action must be in line with every factor needed by engineering students to confidently secure or create fight easily for themselves and the several others who are waiting on the unending employment queues right(prenominal) the tertiary institutions. Our universities, polytechnics and adept colleges that are supposed to train proficient engineers, technologists, and technicians are now filled with obsolete and in most cases nonfunctional equipment. This affects the quality of products from these technological institutions.India, it is claimed, ranks third to the United States and the former USSR in scientific and technical manpower (The Nigerian Engineer, December 2003). It has over four million scientists and engineers. In 1985, Indian universities have 750,000 Engineering students registered. There were five elite institutions called India Institutes of Technology, funded and equipt to the highest standards, to provide high quality university graduates in electronics, computer science and other high technology disciplines.Their products emigrate in large number to the University States and other countries to apply their skills where they are also valued and in demand, like the republic of Ireland and Philippines. It is however not a surprise to see engineering graduates in our Nigerian Universities who cannot differentiate between a bolt and a nut. Some other problems associated w ith engineering education and technology development in Nigeria includes but not limited to the following * Lack of innovation and motivation.* alumnuss are produced in older discipline at the expense of new or appear discipline. * Poor funding * Graduates of Science and Technology exodus to other professional areas * Dilapidated and obsolete state and quality of laboratories in engineering schools and departments * precise astronomical student increase and lecturers decline TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND SELF-EMPLOYMENT The technological development of any nation is critical to the economic survival and ring of that nation.This holds particularly true for developing nations like Nigeria, who is settle down grappling with continuing problems of public infrastructure, total unemployment and underemployment, which have retained them in the class of third world countries with dismal economic frustration. A country is said to be technologically backward when * It cannot produce capita l goods such as tractors, lathe machines, drill machines, cars, trains, and other very important equipment.* It is unable to exploit her natural resources yet with the help of foreigners who will normally provide the technology and expertise to take the exploitation of her resources. * It is unable to mechanize her agriculture i. e. crude implements are still used for agricultural production activities by a large percentage of those who are involved in agricultural production. * It depends on other countries for the picture of its spare parts for industrial machinery etc. Nigeria can be adjudged a technologically underdeveloped/poor country going by their self-importance-discipline of all the characteristics itemized above.The greatest contributor to her qualification as such is the deficiency of the indispensable trio of science, engineering technology and innovation (SETI) for any scrimping that is serious about technology development. SELF-EMPLOYMENT Self employment can be defined as earning a living by working individually or running a gainful business for the satisfaction of ones needs. Having realized this, many industrialized and newly industrialized countries have committed resources and time to the promotion of entrepreneurship through various means including specific emphasis on the educational sectorreorientation, especially at the tertiary level.As stated earlier in this motif, many Nigerian engineering graduates have been branded unemployable. It is the duty of engineering educators to rebrand our future engineers. fare it to observe that the present problem accumulated over the years. The compartmentalization of educational, industrial, employment and labour policies in Nigeria seem not to have encouraged self employment right from the colonial era. Many of the educational policies centered on primary, secondary and adult education.The colonial educational policy centered on the production of literate nationals who were required to man positions, which would strengthen the colonial administration. therefrom our educational institutions, few as they were remained factories for producing clerks, interpreters, forest guards and sanitary inspectors as no special professional or entrepreneurial skill was envisaged in the educational system, (Akinyemi, 1987). Unfortunately, the trend affected the foundation of engineering education in Nigeria. The make love absence of enterprise education in the educational policy had continued till now.The industrial policy which came on board only after the Nigerian independence in 1960 initially concentrated on the introduction of big industries with utter neglect for small scale business. By so doing entrepreneurship which is the bedrock of small scale business was unwittingly de-emphasized. The combination of indifference to education for self-employment in the engineering schools system and the long term calmness to the development of entrepreneurial skill through a robust a nd all encompassing engineering curriculum has contributed in no small way to the serious unemployment problem facing the engineering graduates.There needs to be an urgent link between engineering education, enterprise and self employment through an integrated national policy on engineering education. This would serve as a panacea for solving the massive unemployment problem, diminish country-bred poverty and empower a larger percentage of the citizens economically. NEED FOR meliorate It is obvious that Nigeria is grappling with myriads of economic, social and political problems. Even, the structures and practice of democratic boldness reintroduced in 1999 needs a structural reform to sustain it. go about as it is with so many short term issues, the government should be aware that she should also address long term issues, which posses the greater electric potential to shape the countries future. In todays world in which markets are increasingly globalizing and technological chan ges are recognized as a hint indices of economic growth and dynamism, Nigeria cannot afford to neglect the need to an active Engineering and Technological infrastructure operating in a policy environment, which encourages and rewards research and development, as well as meritocracy.Much as Nigeria has conveyed a curriculum conference to restore the direction of our National education objectives in 1969, and have experienced some technological growths, we are yet to see technological development. Our economic life has refused to improve in an era when many nations of the world have entered the phase of industrial revolution in which computers, robots, microelectronics, biotechnology and atomic technology are in common use, Nigeria is yet to grasp the first phase of industrial revolution which began in Europe in the 18th century.We must henceforth seek to create the much needed technological culture in which the general public is made aware of the need to use scientific methodologi es in their daily operation. Many graduates of our institutions are sluggish or unemployable. This ultimately poses questions to the nature of training given to them in our institutions. Do they have enough specialized skills that would make them job seekers or job creators in the area of Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation?Meanwhile, the National Economic sanction and suppuration Strategy (NEEDS) demonstrated that so much has been put into paper to grow the economy. This has not translated to the much expected transformation, technology development and self employment capability in the citizenry. Something really has to be done and very quikly especially with reference to the Millenium Development Goals (MGGs) which is focused on poverty eradication and the Vision 20-20-20 national development plan. REMEDIES AND CONCLUSION STAFF TRAINING AND holding Continuous training of the trainers is very important in engineering education.To obtain a grounded knowledge and deta iled experience in real world aspects of engineering theories, policies and global best practices, with emphasis on authorized positioning and further studies of various engineering fields, the engineering educators must be subjected to incessant sponsored training courses. Making efforts to prevent the fully trained engineering educators from capitulation of their duty is equally essential. Engineering is a professional course. Their practitioners must be well taken care of by government. If not, the experts would be tempted to move to other spheres where they get better pay for their services.Poor conditions of service also explains why engineering lecturers leave the country to acquire more knowledge and skill but either refuse to return or leave teaching entirely for the industry. There is also some cases where skilled and intelligent engineering teachers remain in their teaching and research objectives, but do not devote their full maintenance to the work in their bid to tack on their economy through other activities. The engineering lecturers remuneration ought to be adjusted to come at par with that of other professionals in the country.This will not only arouse the needed interest in the job but also prevent brain drain in engineering education and provide for more efficient teaching and research exercise. A number of recommendations for the successful administration of science and engineering education in Nigeria are given below with respect to self-employment and technology development in the nation * Strengthening University-Industry Interaction Programme * Periodic Accreditation Exercises by Regulatory and lord bodies such as National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for adept facts of life (NBTE), COREN, MDCN, NIA, etc.* Introduction of Supervised Graduate Training plan in Engineering (SGTSE) * Curriculum Review in Institutions to address the current unemployment in the country * asylum of Nigeria Institute of Engineering Technology with the aim of providing practical drills to graduate engineers of all discipline. * Provision modern engineering infrastructure. * Establishment of Technology Innovation Fund. * Launching and Development of Mobile Internet Unit for easy access to current trends in engineering practice.There is also the need to bridge the gap between the Nigeria Entrepreneur and the University. Very few entrepreneurs have been stimulated to have meaningful interaction with the Universities and Polytechnics. There is a lot to be learnt by the Universities from the experiences of entrepreneurs who have toiled, failed and succeeded, and failed again and succeeded (Olufokunbi, 1995). Similarly the entrepreneurs can achieve this inter- sexual relationship by * Inviting academics to spend some time in their giving medication e.g. Sabbatical leave* Sending some of their staff for in-service training in tertiary institution * Visiting higher institutions on invitation to share experiences with students and staff * Financing research and consultancy especially those related to their businesses. CONCLUSION A survey of the administration of engineering education in Nigeria has been made in relation to technology development and self employment. Its advantages and drawbacks have been reviewed.It is now known that for any nation especially developing ones like Nigeria to grow and develop, proper attention has to be paid to the environment, condition and manner in which engineering education is taught in her institutions, as it is the backbone of all technology development. Qualitative domination of the tenets of engineering by lectures and students will aid self-employment and inadvertently effect the actualization of the federal government of Nigerias vision 20-20-20 development goal. REFERENCES Oluka, S. I. Onwualu, A. P, Eneh, I. I. (1999).Engineer In- Society. SNAAP printers and publishers, Enugu Eze, E. M, (2008). Infrastructural Development in Nigeria Need for Enginee ring Edducation Reforms. On the occasion of 12th Herbert Macauly memorial Lecture, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, june 7, 2008 Bassi, S. 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