NBTE IN COLLABORATION WITH UNESCO PARIS DEVELOPED MORE TECHNICAL TEXTBOOKS FOR NIGERIA POLYTECHNICS
Following the successful completion in December 2008 of 246
textbooks and training manuals for the National Diploma in
mechanical, civil, electrical, computer technology, building
construction, quantity surveying and science laboratory
technology, the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE in
cooperation with UNESCO launched another drive to develop more
textbooks for other disciplines. As part of a capacity building
project for the Revitalisation of Technical and vocational
Education- Phase II, textbooks and teaching material are being
prepared for all disciplines that have updated and revised
curricula completed in the first Phase of the Project.
As before six teams of lecturers from Kaduna Polytechnic
commenced the drafting of the textbooks for Business Management
and Administration, Accountancy, Statistics, Office Technology
Management, Hospitality Management and Leisure and Tourism
Management with the guidance of UNESCO specialist. The groups
followed set guidelines for the formats and production of the
textbooks and examples of similar materials produced with UNESCO
assistance, in Nigeria and other countries, were provided to all
the teams.
At the second Learning Material Development Workshop held at
Kaduna Polytechnic from 22 June to 3 July 2009 the drafts for
the textbooks were further developed by the 72 national experts
and reviewed by 6 international consultants. The completed
textbooks totalling 110 will added to the first group of 246
textbooks and will be made available to all Polytechnics for a
trial run for one year before further evaluation and revisions
are carried out. The textbooks are written in digital format
with a view for the introduction of e-Learning in the future.
They will all be loaded on NBTE Website for easy access by all
students and lecturers.
At the closing Ceremony held on Friday 3 July 2009 NBTE
Executive Secretary, Dr. Nuru Yakubu was presented with hard
copies of the textbooks. He expressed his appreciation to the
Nigerian participants and UNESCO international consultants for
this tremendous achievement. All the participants were then
presented with Certificates of Participation in the workshop.
It should be noted that technical books are scarce in general
and very expensive to buy from abroad and in any case they do
not necessarily suit the Nigerian curricula.
The professional development of the
lecturers and senior lecturers to produce their own teaching
material on such a large scale will enhance the national
capacity for improving the quality of technical and vocational
education and training. It will also provide students and
graduates of the Polytechnics and Technical colleges with
essential technical resources during their studies and after
graduation.