Recently,
the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government (FG) abruptly introduced
a new policy in the Nigeria’s education sector.
The
decision, which was unanimously reached at the Federal Executive Council (FEC)
meeting held on Wednesday 6th June 2018 where the approval of a
comprehensive reform of the country’s tertiary education system was made, had
it that the ongoing Higher National Diploma (HND) certificate invariably
awarded by the Polytechnics would no longer be valid.
The resolution disclosed that the HND honour
would, from date, be bestowed on only the students that had already been
admitted for the programme in our various polytechnics. Hence, the affected
institutions would henceforth be limited to award of the National Diploma (ND).
Under the policy, the polytechnics would now
become campuses of the proximate universities whereby the Vice-Chancellors
(VCs) would be legible to appoint the Provosts for their respective affiliate
Polytechnics, subject to the ratification of the universities’ councils. In
view of this, the students who are desirous of further education would be
awarded a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) degree by the concerned proximate
university.
In addition, all the programmes being
run by polytechnics that aren’t technology-based or technically-inclined, which
constitute over 70 per cent of the overall programmes currently offered by the
institutions, would outrightly be scrapped by the mandate of the new policy.
The
FEC further directed that to kick-start the policy, the nation’s two most
prominent polytechnics – the Yaba College of Technology and Kaduna Polytechnic
– would henceforth be known and addressed as City University of Technology,
Yaba and City University of Technology, Kaduna, respectively.
With education being on the concurrent
list, the states are enjoined to follow suit. And to give legal backing to the
resolutions, the FEC approved the submission of two Executive Bills to the
National Assembly (NASS) through the Attorney General of the Federation for
onward enactment.
The first bill would concretize the
setting-up of the two named city universities while the second one would
approve the preparation and consolidation of all federal polytechnics as well
as colleges of education as campuses of their proximate universities.
The Minister of Education, Mr. Adamu
Adamu while briefing newsmen immediately after the meeting, further highlighted
that “the HND certificate will remain a legal tender in Nigeria and holders of
such certificate will continue to be recognized as the equivalent of first
degree holders without discriminatory remunerations and limit to progression in
the work place”. Similarly, the boss stated “the NCE certificate will be
retained as the minimum teaching qualification at the basic level of
education”.
Ever since I received the entire content of
the new policy, I have not ceased to be worried owing to various pertinent
factors that might in the long run pose a barrier to the progress of the
policy, thereby bedevilling our education sector as well as the country’s
labour market and the existing work places.
To aptly address – or better still avoid –
the foreseen anomaly, the bill to be sent to the NASS must be well detailed and
all-inclusive devout of any clause that may ensue crisis in the future. And for
this to be actualized, all parties involved must consider the interest of the
country at large as priority.
First, I saw no reason granting the VCs of the
proximate universities the immunity to appoint the heads (provosts) of their
affiliated tertiary institutions. Rather, the emergence of such leader ought to
be strictly via election among the interested and qualified candidates who must
be academic staff of the affected polytechnic or college of education, as may
be the case.
Secondly, there is no need renaming the
various polytechnics to ‘City University of Technology’ since they would all be
recognized as campuses of their proximate universities. Rebranding them as city
universities simply implies that there’s no further need to place them as
affiliate institutions.
Thirdly,
to introduce uniformity, the proposed bill must mandate all the state
governments to key into the policy towards avoiding any conflicting situation.
It would be abnormal for the federal polytechnics to stop awarding HND to their
students whilst those of the states would continue to do so.
Inter alia, for this policy to be fully
appreciated and adored, it would be ideal and wise to totally abolish the recognition
and existence of the HND qualification in Nigeria. This can be achieved by
directing those who had already been honoured with the certificate to return to
their respective alma-maters with a view to undergoing a one/two-year programme
that would make them qualified to receive the B.Tech degree certificate.
The above suggestion is highly consequential
because as the policy progresses, the labour market or employers of labour
would be forced to abhor the HND certificate or see it as a worthless
qualification. The HND has hitherto been discriminated let alone when the
country’s polytechnics are prohibited from awarding it.
The honourable minister had in his
speech stated that holders of such certificate would “continue” to be
recognized as the equivalent of first degree holders as if the HND holders had
ever been treated as equal to their university counterparts. Think about it!
FDN Nwaozor
National Coordinator,
Right Thinkers Movement
__________________________________
frednwaozor@gmail.com
+2348028608056
Twitter: @mediambassador
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