CLAIM 1: MAPOLY is the fifth best polytechnic in Nigeria
CLAIM 2: Kaduna Polytechnic, Yaba College of Technology, Ramat Polytechnic and Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu and MAPOLY are the best five polytechnics in Nigeria
CONCLUSION: The first claim cannot be proven as there is INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE, while the second is outrightly FALSE!
FULL STORY:
Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), Abeokuta being upgraded to Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology has not been the only news in recent weeks regarding the institution. The institution with its peculiar history – established in January 1979 – has had its fair share of stories; not limited to a repealed act, an enactment and the death of Chief MKO Abiola, the latter who was the singular reason for its rename. All this, however, is not the only reason MAPOLY must have caught your attention in recent weeks.
Chances are that you’re here because you heard something Dr Samson Odedina said. The Rector of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, was reported to have remarked that the institution is ranked 5th best Polytechnic in Nigeria. This happened during the orientation exercise conducted for newly admitted students of the institution on Thursday, July 25 2019.
The source of the claim is perhaps from the report written by Press Club MAPOLY. In the report, Odedina asserts that the institution is only below Kaduna Polytechnic, Yaba College of Technology, Ramat Polytechnic, Adamawa and Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu in pecking order for polytechnics in Nigeria.
Here’s a brief definition – A polytechnic is (or ‘was’, in the case of the UK) a place of tertiary education that focuses purely on professional subjects that have a vocational dimension to them. Whilst they offered postgraduate courses, they did not award their own degrees, but rather the Council for National Academic Awards was the awarding body.
In Nigeria, a polytechnic is also a tertiary institution for vocational studies, with a Higher National Diploma (HND) awarded after completion of studies. According to Mr. Olu Akeusola, Provost, Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED), Epe, Lagos State,
“The theory and concept of the 6-3-3-4 system of education is that after a child has gone through compulsory six years of primary education and three years of junior secondary school, those who are educationally inclined would proceed to senior secondary while those who are not would opt for technical schools. From there, the technical students would proceed to polytechnics while those that went to senior secondary schools would go to universities to further their education.”
VERIFYING THE CLAIMS:
The October 2018 ranking of National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), a body that provides accreditation of academic programmes in all Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) institutions in Nigeria, gives us some information on the best polytechnics in Nigeria. In that list, the Federal Polytechnic Nekede, Imo State ranked 1st with 85.38%, the Federal Polytechnic Ilaro, Ogun State ranked 2nd with 73.08%, Kaduna Polytechnic ranked 3rd with 72.31%, the Polytechnic of Ibadan, Oyo State ranked 4th with 67.69% and the Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Niger State ranked 5th with 65.38%.
However, MAPOLY was absent from that rating! This may not be unconnected to the upgrade of the institution to a university of science and technology passed and signed in 2017.
Further research acquired from the July 2019 ranking of Webometrics, a Spain-based ranking for higher education institutions in the world, revealed that MAPOLY ranks 105th best higher education institution in Nigeria and 14,491st in the world.
While this analytics ranks all tertiary institutions in Nigeria, the positions of polytechnics alone were not specified. We, nonetheless, filtered away universities on the list leaving just the polytechnics. This mechanism albeit imperfect revealed MAPOLY as the 7th best polytechnic in Nigeria. But because of this limitation and the discrepancies between the results obtained from this ranking scale and that of the NBTE, this claim is a bit complicated, and thus, UNPROVEN.
For the second claim, we used the same filtering method and obtained the following:
Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun State tops the polytechnic rankings in Nigeria. It is followed by Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State, Edo Polytechnic, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos State and Federal Polytechnic, Ede. Their ranking among institutions of the world stands at 8,186, 10,123, 10963, 11,009 and 13,334 respectively.
This is in direct contrast with the Rector’s claim. Even the NBTE ranking places Kaduna Polytechnic, Yaba College of Technology, Ramat Polytechnic and Institute of Management and Technology as 3rd, 8th, 34th and 7th respectively. The second claim is, therefore, FALSE!
