The crisis of poorly maintained laboratories and workshops is not isolated to a single institution. Across Nigeria, students in science, technology, and engineering disciplines are increasingly voicing concerns over the alarming decay of practical learning facilities. Recently, in June 2025, the Nigeria Education News team embarked on an investigative tour of various institutions and discovered a pattern of negligence that cuts across federal, state, and polytechnic campuses.
At the Federal Polytechnic Offa, Kwara State, students at the College of Engineering lamented bitterly about the lack of functional equipment. Many of the engineering students complained that their practical sessions are either skipped or simulated with verbal explanations. For mechanical and electrical engineering students, the absence of modern tools and machines has left them far behind in technical competence. Some students even joked that their so-called “practical classes” are nothing more than extended theory lectures.
Similarly, at The Polytechnic Ibadan, the same complaint echoed through the engineering and science faculties. Students revealed that most of their equipment is outdated, non-functional, or completely absent. For instance, civil engineering students said they had not had access to a fully operational soil mechanics laboratory in years. One student said, “We mostly rely on videos from YouTube to understand some experiments because our lab equipment is either broken or missing parts.”
The situation is not any better at Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado Ekiti. Our team interviewed some final-year students in the Faculty of Science, particularly from the departments of Chemistry and Physics. They complained about obsolete laboratory equipment, dilapidated lab buildings, and the absence of consistent funding for maintenance. A few of them disclosed that project supervision has become a major challenge as students are often asked to design experiments without the actual tools to carry them out.
At Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) in Ogbomoso, the frustration is even deeper because the institution prides itself as a center of technological excellence. However, students at LAUTECH told Nigeria Education News that most of their workshops have been abandoned, while their laboratories suffer from gross underfunding. Some students explained that, despite paying heavy departmental dues, they still end up improvising practicals with makeshift materials not suitable for proper learning.
One of the disturbing issues discovered is the poor maintenance culture that pervades all these institutions. Equipment purchased during past administrations now sits idle due to lack of servicing or replacement parts. Several students and staff interviewed in Offa, Ibadan, Ado-Ekiti, and Ogbomoso blamed this on the Nigerian system where projects are commissioned for publicity but abandoned shortly after the media cameras leave.
There is also the issue of insufficient funding and bureaucratic bottlenecks. According to some lecturers who spoke anonymously, many proposals for lab rehabilitation and equipment purchase are trapped in layers of administrative red tape. Even when funds are eventually released, they are often inadequate, or the procurement process becomes tainted with corruption, leading to the purchase of substandard equipment.
Students across these institutions are now beginning to worry about their future in the competitive global market. They fear that their lack of practical exposure will leave them unemployable or force them to undergo expensive retraining after graduation. A mechanical engineering student from Federal Polytechnic Offa said, “We are supposed to graduate as engineers, but with this kind of training, we’re more like paper engineers.”
The neglect of laboratories and workshops also threatens the quality of research output from Nigerian institutions. Without functional labs, lecturers cannot guide students properly in research methodologies, nor can they conduct meaningful studies themselves. This has led to a situation where most student projects are recycled, theoretical, or outright plagiarized, further eroding the credibility of academic qualifications.
Another concern is the impact on national development. Nigeria aspires to grow its technology and industrial sectors, but these dreams will remain elusive if its universities and polytechnics are producing graduates without hands-on experience. No country develops by churning out half-baked engineers and scientists who have never interacted with modern tools or machinery.
Many education experts argue that the problem is not necessarily about building new structures but about properly maintaining existing facilities. They recommend that institutions adopt a maintenance culture, create a regular audit of laboratory equipment, and establish partnerships with private industries for support and upgrades.
The Nigeria Education News team observed that this systemic failure is not about isolated cases of negligence but a national crisis that requires urgent attention. From Oyo to Offa and to Ibadan, from Ado-Ekiti to Ogbomoso, the chorus of complaints is the same: “We don’t have the tools to learn.”
If Nigeria is serious about solving its education and employment crises, it must begin with revamping its practical education infrastructure. The focus should not just be on theory but on producing graduates who are ready to compete with their counterparts globally. Otherwise, the country risks falling further behind science, technology, and innovation.
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