A STUDY OF PROBLEMS FACING VOCATIONAL TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN NIGERIA: A CASE STUDY OF ENUGU STATE

ABSTRACT

Vocational Technical Education is a sine qua non to any nation who wishes to be self-reliant, self-sufficient and industrialized, therefore any identifiable problem to its progress needs greater attention.

CHAPTER ONE

1.1 INTRODUCTION

In most countries of the world vocational technical education has been given a pride of place, because of the realization of its importance in the economic growth and well being of any Nation. For any nation to be self reliant and self sufficient its educational programmes must have been properly planned and necessary facilities provided to enable the attainment of programmes goals. The current issues of concern in vocational technical education in Nigeria particularly in Enugu state college of education technical is the standard of the institution. To this end, Nigeria is channeling more efforts towards the development of technology since there seems to be a positive relationship between a nation’s state of economy and a nation’s state of technology. Hence Ozoro (1982) stated that “scientific and technological man-power developments should not be le to evolve by change in modern economics as national well being is hinged or dependent on properly calculated technical plans”. For real the standard of vocational technical education in Enugu state is issue of concern.

1.2 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Vocational technical education in Nigeria is a pre-requisite for over all social, economic and scientific/technological development. Its importance in the nation’s development can not be over emphasize. This is a result of its positive impact in a nation’s building like reduction of unemployment rate, provision of needed skill and knowledge, increase in the production of goods and services, reduces dependence on foreign expertise, encourages foreign investment, increase in foreign exchange earnings etc. Nigeria, the largest black nation in the world is endowed with such natural resources as crude oil, bauxite, valuable trees, limestone, rubber, tin ore etc. which can be harnessed for the upliftment of the social and economic life of the people. In order to fully tap and harness these resources Nigerians must of a necessity, be groomed, educated and empowered in the direction of vocational and technical education. For this reason the federal republic of Nigeria, in the national policy on education (1981) revised envisage for Nigeria a nation which is strong, self-reliant and a dynamic economy as three of the best national objectives for which vocational technical education makes some contributions.

Inspite of all the position impact of vocational technical education in nation’s building, vocational technical education in Nigeria particularly in Enugu state college of education (technical) is still facing some problems which imposed questions in the minds of the students, lecturers and the people of Enugu state like: what could be responsible for the problems? And how do we solve the problems? In question one above the majority are of the opinion ranging from government policy to lack of equipment. This research is designed specifically to find out the major problems confronting vocational technical education in Nigeria particularly in Enugu state college of education (technical) Enugu.

1.3 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

This research topic was chosen by the researchers to investigate the “problems facing vocational technical education in Nigeria (a case study of Enugu state college of education (technical)” due to the complaints from students, lecturers and the people of Enugu state on the low standard of vocational technical education in Enugu state. This problem puzzles the minds of the students, lecturers and all concern citizens and imposed questions to them as: could it be that governments do not know the importance of vocational technical education in nation’s development? This situation has generated a lot debate, concern and quarries especially among educators, students and parents. The foregoing situation was recognized by government when the need for the standardization of vocational technical education gathered more momentum. This research is hope to find out the major problems facing vocational education in Nigeria particularly in Enugu state college of education (technical) Enugu.