The Department of Printing Technology, Kaduna Polytechnic was established in 1970 with the sole purpose of providing printing vocational education to the desiring public, private and government sectors. Since then there has been a steady progress in the development of the department. At present it can be rated as the largest printing school in Africa. The department offers the following courses: (a) Post-HND in three options 1. Printing Technology 2. Printing Management 3. Publishing (b) HND-Printing Technology (c) ND Printing Technology (d) Advanced and Intermediate craft certificates in bookbinding and composing (e) Advanced and Intermediate craft certificates in Graphic Reproduction and Machine printing. The dream of the Department of Printing Technology is to be able to offer courses up to the Masters and Ph.D levels in the various areas of specialization. The dream is driven by the desire to provide the highest academic degrees to desiring candidates from any part of the world. For some time now Nigerian printing graduates have been faced with stagnation in terms of furthering their education beyond the Higher National Diploma level. This has been occasioned by the absence of an institution that can offer the course beyond the Higher National Diploma in Nigeria and Africa at large. Although at present the law establishing polytechnics in Nigeria does not allow for the offering of degrees, the department is hoping that before long the Law will be changed to pave way for offering degrees in the polytechnics. The justification for a change in the Law include: i. The cost of overseas training has become so prohibitive that government cannot shoulder the costs. ii. Very few Nigerians can afford the cost of training on private basis. iii. The cost of providing printing education is highly capital intensive due to the machines and equipment that will be required. It will therefore be cheaper to develop existing facilities and progress from there, for instance it may be cheaper to train one printing lecturer abroad who will come back and train five or more in Nigeria. As a delibrate effort towards achieving its goal, the department has designed the post-HND curriculum with the hope that with a few additions in the future it can upgrade the course to a full Masters degree programme. In the areas of staff development, almost every academic staff in the department is involved in one form of further training or another. These will form the nucleus for the workforce needed to take the department to its chosen destination. One of the greatest obstacle of the department and its graduands stems from the fact that there is no university in Nigeria that offers printing. This shortcoming creates an avenue for graduands to move into another area such as education via the (PGDTE) which paves way for studying at the Masters degree level in education. The pride of the department of Printing Technology Kaduna Polytechnic is in the area of supplying the much-needed manpower for the Nigerian Printing Industry. Today there is hardly a town or city in Nigeria that a graduate of the department will not be found in enviable positions in the printing industry, both private and public. Some of the graduands that have been oportuned to travel abroad for further training have continued to shine and show good examples in academic excellence due to the thorough academic culture inculcated in them during their period of study in the department. The curriculum for Kaduna Polytechnic Higher National Diploma, for instance has been adopted by some foreign universities (e.g. Pittsburg State University, USA) as a standard for assessing other printing graduates from Africa. The department of Printing Technology Kaduna Polytechnic also harbours a crop of talented and highly experienced printing technocrats. They are made up of people who have many years of industrial experience and high academic standing. College of Science and Technology  |
