HND DISCRIMINATION BILL SCALE SECOND READING

HND discrimination bill scales second reading

By Lucia Edafioka
October 22, 2014


The Bill for an Act to Abolish and Prohibit
Dichotomy and Discrimination between First
Degrees and Higher National Diploma in the
same Profession/Field and related matters on
Wednesday scaled second reading in the
Senate.
The lead debate was presented by Sen.
Patrick Akinyelure (PDP-Ondo), highlighted the
need to abolish the discrimination between
HND and First Degree.
Senator Akinyelure said the discrimination
against HND holders was threatening to ruin
the nation’s core policy thrust of evolving a
technological and scientifically based society.
He said that findings had proved that some
polytechnic graduates were in some cases
better on the field than their university
counterparts.
“To all intents and purposes, a government
employment policy that places degree holders
ahead of HND holders without recourse to skill
and ability of the HND holder thereof does
more harm than good to the nation’s
development plans.
“Therefore, the aim of the bill is to promote the
technological advancement of our great nation
by encouraging many qualified candidates to
pursue polytechnic and technological
advancement,”
The Senate President, David Mark in his
remarks, said it would be difficult to legislate
on the bill, given that polytechnics were not
originally established to be degree awarding
institutions.
He said rather than canvass for abolishion of
the dichotomy, polytechnics should be
changed to degree awarding institutions.
“The problem here is whether we can legislate
on this. I think obviously that is not going to
work for several reasons that we have all
advanced here.
“We can’t legislate here and say you must
employ an HND instead of employing
somebody with B.SC.
“I think it is more of attitude than what we can
legislate on but we can get an arrangement
where the polytechnics begin to award
degrees, in which case the polytechnics will no
more be polytechnics; they will be
universities,’’
Other lawmakers argued that rather than
seeking to abolish the dichotomy, efforts
should be made to transform all polytechnics
to degree awarding institutions.
Prof. Olusola Adeyeye (APC-Osun), the Vice
Chairman of Senate Committee on Education,
canvassed for the harmonisation of the
institutions to enable polytechnics to award
degrees.
“I believe that for as long as there is
difference in admission standard and training
for both institutions of learning, there will be
difference in employment.
“Let us go the US way and equalise both
polytechnics and universities and have
specialised institutions to handle the technical
aspect”.
The lawmaker explained that Nigeria inherited
the polytechnic system from the colonial
masters, who thought of having a middle level
manpower where people could be trained
without the lengthy period in university.
He further explained that UK subsequently
abolished the system after meeting the
purpose for which it was established to meet
its industrial need.
“We need to make the admission standard the
same for polytechnics and universities; forget
the dichotomy issue. It is a lie to say you need
HND to run an industrial state,”
The Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ike
Ekweremadu, said even if the bill did not
succeed, it would help to raise awareness on
the dysfunctional nature of the country’s
educational system.
“All we need now is to expand the knowledge
base of our polytechnics, increase entry
qualification and employ qualified teachers for
the polytechnics.
“We should then make conscious effort to set
up technical schools that would award only
diploma to support our industries and help the
system industrially.
“To say we will abolish the dichotomy is
difficult. The committee to handle the bill
should invite experts to look into harmonising
the institutions,” he said.
Sen. ITA Enang, on his part (PDP-Akwa Ibom)
said he was appaled by the poor standard of
some polytechnics in the country.
He called on the regulatory body in charge of
polytechnics to adequately regulate the
establishment of the institution in the country.
“I have seen polytechnics operate in two
bedroom flats and this is the situation that
brings suspicion about the quality of our
polytechnics.
“I have also seen standard polytechnics and
the quality of their product compete favourably
with universities”.
He called on relevant agencies to improve on
the carrying capacity of universities to
accommodate all those seeking admissions
and also for the harmonisation of universities
and polytechnics to help manage a situation
where people went to polytechnics because
they could not secure admission into
universities.
“This bill should pass a second reading to find
solution to the problem. I support this bill,” he
said.
Sen. Chris Ngige (APC-Anambra) said in as
much as he sympathised with HND holders,
the bill should be dropped.
He said that relevant agencies should rather
harmonise the institutions and make
polytechnics degree awarding institutions.
“The bill evokes emotion but laws should not
be made based on that to avoid mistakes.
This has to do with fundamental structure of
the education sector.
“Let us conserve the resources of the senate;
it will not go through second reading,” he said.
Sen. Abubakar Bagudu ( PDP-Kebbi), a
member of Senate Committee on Education,
said if the dichotomy should be abolished,
there would be standardisation of policy.
He argued that standardisation of policy was
vital because universities and polytechnics had
different structures.
“The university is theory and research oriented
as compared to polytechnic which is
supposed to turn out industrial ready
graduates,” he said.
The bill, which scaled second reading after
heated debate at plenary on its relevance,
seeks to resolve controversy over wage
disparity and gross discrimination against HND
holder in public and private sectors of the
economy. PMNEWS reports.