Polytechnic engineering mathematics: assessing its relevance to the productivity of industries in Uganda

Background: The main objective of the study was to examine the relevance of engineering mathematics to the emerging industries. The level of abstraction, the standard of rigor, and the depth of theoretical treatment are necessary skills expected of a graduate engineering technician to be derived from mathematical knowledge. The question of whether these skills are imparted to benefit emerging economies still remains a big area of investigation. This study investigated the relevancy of engineering mathematics to the benefit of local industry in a developing economy, Uganda. Results: There was a significant difference between the mathematics being taught to the engineering technical students and the mathematics relevant to the engineering technical work in the industries (p value < 0.05). Implying that the mathematics taught to engineering technical students, though relevant, is not in the form of what the industries require. The use, practicability, depth, rigor, modernity, relevancy, and usefulness of the taught mathematics were all statistically different from the desired mathematical skills for the industry. Moreover, the extent of use of the engineering mathematics did not differ between the required and taught and among the civil, electrical, and mechanical branches of engineering. Conclusions: The mathematics syllabi for polytechnic institutes should be developed to directly support innovations and efficiency in the local industries. Therefore, a close collaboration between the polytechnic colleges and the local industries should be facilitated to achieve a sustainable industrial. Introduction The study examined the relevance to the local industry of the engineering mathematics in the emerging economies (Zill et al. 2011). Identification of the required quality of engineering mathematics in the academic programs essential to the local industry has not been established leading to an apparent deviation from what is required for local industrial development. Clearly, a major aim in teaching mathematics to the engineering technical students is to provide and equip the learners with knowledge and skills, in particular when they eventually settle to work as engineering technicians. Yet industry might only welcome that which it may practically value as applicable, relevant, and useful and may only entertain the suitable elements of the mathematics. Moreover, the level of abstraction, the standard of rigor, and the depth of theoretical treatment that might be characteristics of the mathematics taught may not at all be called for in the industries. In which case, it should be considered that there exists a mismatch between the pedagogic philosophy of the mathematics educators at the polytechnics on the one hand and, on the other hand, the apparent utilitarian requirements of the engineering technicians working in industry (Duffy 2010; Grewal 1996). With respect to relevance to industry, while the mathematical view of the engineering technicians working in industry could significantly differ from that of the mathematics educators, there could exist a difference among the mathematical views of the civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering technicians working in industry (Markes 2006). Similarly, the views of the civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering mathematics educators might also differ. Further, on the question of the relevance of the mathematics taught to the needs of the industries, it is deemed in the study that there exists a * Correspondence: [email protected] School of Statitics and Planning, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda International Journal of STEM Education © The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Jehopio and Wesonga International Journal of STEM Education (2017) 4:16 DOI 10.1186/s40594-017-0078-z