Building Maintenance Deficit: Evidence from Public Polytechnics in South-East, Nigeria

Abstract

Higher education institutions in Nigeria significantly rely on the adequacy of existing physical facilities as a success factor for indoor space audit, academic rating, certification and carrying capacity. However, there has been a growing concern over the deferred maintenance backlogs in tertiary education institutions in Nigeria due to the stylized notion of maintenance as a cost item rather than investment. This backward-looking perception has contributed to unwholesome maintenance practices leading to inadequate maintenance plan, insufficient maintenance budget, paucity of technical staff, poor integration of information technology, lack of stakeholders’ participation and insecurity. Though there is available literature on the subject, the problems of maintenance have remained and continued to persist. The study examined the challenges of building maintenance in public polytechnics in South-East, Nigeria and attempted to proffer solutions to them. The investigation embarked on physical inspection of the facilities of some polytechnics in South-East, Nigeria. While from a population of 11 polytechnics, samples of 6 were randomly selected and studied covering directors of budget and planning, directors of works and services, heads of maintenance unit of the selected public institutions. Analytical techniques employed was exploratory factor analysis mechanism. The findings of this work show that all the factor groups contribute significantly to building maintenance with average loading of staffing (0.847), data and information management (0.780), maintenance policy (0.807) and technical related issues (0.849). The study recommends a maintenance framework that will positively integrate all the group factors to enhance building efficiency in public polytechnics in Nigeria.