STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING MAINTAINANCE OF LABORATORIES AND EQUIPMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS PROGRAMME FOR EFFECTIVE SERVICE DELIVERY IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

The research was design to investigate the strategies for improving maintenance of laboratories and equipment of vocational and technical education for effective service delivery in tertiary institutions. three research questions were answered and three hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance were formulated for the study. A survey research design was adopted for the study. The major purpose of this study is to look at to find out the strategic improvement needs of electrical technologists for the maintenance of electrical laboratory equipment in technical institution in Niger State, to determine the skill improvement needs of electrical technologists in: Preventive, Predictive and Corrective maintenance of electrical laboratory equipment and to find out the effectiveness of vocational and technical education in service delivery. the literature was reviewed in line with the three research questions, and the null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study, in which several sub-headings were discussed as regard to the purpose of the study. The research design used for this study is survey research design in which questionnaire was formulated to solicit information from respondents. The targeted population comprised of automobile technology teachers and automobile workshop supervisors. 75 males electrical trade staff and 25 females electrical trade staff. Data obtained was analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and t-test statistics. the study concluded and recommended the following: Adequate resources should be allocated to technical and vocational education. Inadequate funds affect the provision of essentials such as well – equipped laboratories and workshops, relevant textbooks and training manuals, vocational and technical education requires skilled and proficient teachers. Teachers preparation should be given a priority attention. there is the need for regular in-service training for teachers of technology to upgrade their skills. Periodical industrial training for teacher is a sine-qua-non in other to keep them abreast with the technological changes in the industry, there is the need for our technical institutions to establish good relationship and linkages with similar institutions abroad as this will promote cross – fertilization of ideas and enhance technology transfer. By doing this the technical institutions will have access to new developments, exchange programmes and other numerous benefits available at those institutions whose technical programmes are well developed and Further research should be carried out on the pre-caution measures to be taken during service delivery to ensure its effectiveness.