I used to patronise a lot, the services of vulcanisers who operate in open spaces in the towns and along the highways. They are everywhere and their services are available whenever you need them because they do not rely on expensive and sophisticated equipment. Their fees too are manageable. Sometimes I wonder whether they make profit at all.
That was until a friend whispered in my ears to be careful with wayside vulcanisers. They are helpful but they are also prone to mistakes that could be costly. Some can inflate your tyres beyond the acceptable pressure either out of ignorance or due to faulty gauges. When that happens you are likely to experience a burst tyre while cruising on the highway and the consequences are quite obvious.
Even with that warning I continued gambling with my life and car by frequenting the services of these vulcanisers until one day, when the person I thought to be the professional asked me whether he should make it 35 or 40. When I inquired what the meaning of that was, he said he wanted to know the pressure I wanted for my tyre. I then knew I was in serious trouble.
Even as an ordinary person, I know all tyres have the necessary information any vulcaniser requires when serving a customer. Unfortunately these vulcanisers, who are rendering very important and life-or-death services, have very little education, if any. Their competence in their field of operation is, therefore, very limited.
If such a handicapped vulcaniser comes to serve a driver who belongs to his group, the disastrous consequences could well be imagined. The situation of our vulcanisers epitomises two things; the manner we have treated technical education and the treatment we have given to some professional groups in the country.
We have come to the conclusion that some professions do not require any strong educational background or intellectual capacity and have, therefore, relegated them to people who think they have no other choice in life. This has undermined efforts by the technical institutes to produce skilled artisans who could render efficient and top-grade service to the public.
The technical schools have courses in several technical skills including carpentry and joinery, painting and decoration, automotive engineering, electrical installation, plumbing, welding, and refrigeration.
Unfortunately most of our young and brilliant students who could have become top flight technicians in these fields do not show enthusiasm about these courses because they have come to the painful realisation that they are more or less associated with those with weak academic grades. Some of those who show interest are eventually discouraged by either their parents or peers.
In the end, a big percentage of those who pursue courses in these skills at the technical schools distance themselves from the profession after graduation and prefer to be employed by companies and treated like white collar professionals, leaving a minority few who manage to set up their own workshops where they register a vast difference in quality work between them and the rest.
This accounts for the reason why most of our garages are still manned mostly by mechanics who trained on the job and who oftentimes do more damage to our vehicles in the name of repairing them. This approach cannot bring us the technological advancement we so much need as a country if the field is left for only apprentice mechanics.
By now we expect a deliberate programme to systematically replace these mechanics without technical education with well-trained ones who can assimilate modern innovations in the technical field and who could in the long run be able to design and manufacture something of their own instead of perfecting the repair of vehicles manufactured by others.
The construction industry has adversely suffered similarly from lack of highly trained artisans. With the availability of abundant timber resources we should have by now reduced the importation of furniture into the country.
Sadly, apart from Agorwu, Kpogas and a few local furnishers, the field has been left open for foreign companies who bring in finished products from outside or who employ local expertise and pay them peanuts.
The landscape can change drastically if graduates of our polytechnics and universities will plunge themselves in these trades and debunk the notion that only illiterates or the semi-educated are suited for these trades.
The fashion and beauty care industry, which is a major money spinner in even advanced countries, has been given the same shabby treatment. The field has been left in the hands of those generally described as school dropouts.
But in instances where the business had been managed by those with higher educational qualifications, there was a vast difference in the quality of service rendered and customer satisfaction has been proved through the number and class of clientele who patronise those facilities.
One profession which has been treated with contempt and for which the nation is paying dearly with precious lives is driving. This is a profession we have come to think of erroneously as a mere mechanical function of holding and turning a steering wheel without the need for the use of the head.
The carnage on our roads is mainly due to the quality of drivers we have in the system. Most of the accidents on the roads (about 80 per cent) are due to human error, only a few being mechanical fault. It is like saying that if one could not do anything, at least driving is available.
We have, therefore, allowed driving to be invaded by all sorts of characters, a lot of who cannot read simple road signs. If people with university degrees could work as taxi or bus drivers in the US and Europe, why should driving not be upgraded here to bring discipline and sanity into the profession?
This mentality is not limited to the technical professions alone. Tell people you are a teacher, a nurse or a journalist and the conclusion is that you have not passed your Ordinary or Advanced Level examinations. In the process, some of these professions which are challenging and play strategic roles in national development do not attract the right calibre of scholars.
In this computer age, no profession should be taken for granted. The vehicles that are coming today are so sophisticated that it requires more than just apprenticeship to service them. That means we should see technical education as a very important part of our national development. The days when we saw professions such as driving, hairdressing, plumbing, catering, barbering, vehicle repairs and many more as menial jobs that do not demand formal training in accredited institutions should be over.
We should make it easy for our children to choose their professions no matter their educational level. It is only then that we can raise the status of these professions and bring the best out of the professionals.
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fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
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