NATE decries discrimination against HND holders PUNCH APRIL 24, 2013 BY OKECHUKWU NNODIM, ABUJA
The Nigerian Association of Technologists in Engineering has urged the Federal Government to address the existing dichotomy between public service employees who graduated with Higher National Diploma and their counterparts with university degree certificates.
The disparity, according to the association, is becoming very worrisome, adding that it was high time the government implemented the decisions and recommendations made by stakeholders on the issue.
The National President, NATE, Dr. Leo Okereke, argued that a Federal Executive Council decision in 2007 had stated that HND certificates would remain legal in Nigeria and holders of such certificates would continue to be recognised as equivalent to first degree holders without discriminatory remunerations and limit to progression in the work place.
Presenting a document to our correspondent, Okereke said, “This is a document from the Ministry of Education dated November 24, 2006 and titled: ‘Removal of ceiling on the career progression of HND holders from polytechnics.’ It was signed by Dr. Jamila Shu’ara for the Minister of Education.
“The document has it that in spite of the above, the products of the polytechnic system have continued to suffer various forms of discrimination.”
Some of the discriminations as contained in the document, according to Okere, include the placement of grade level 14 ceiling on the career progression of HND holders in the public service; recruitment criteria and policies, which do not consider HND holders for employment, even when they acquire M.Sc. and PhD degrees; and non-appointment of HND holders to head departments, divisions and units as long as there was a degree holder regardless of the grade level and proficiency.
Others, he said, were non-registration of HND holders as professionals by some professional bodies and their non-consideration for scholarship awards by national establishments and some international bodies such as the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, The Commonwealth, British Council, the World Bank, etc.
Reacting to a recent statement credited to the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufai,t he NATE president said the association was pained by such a comment.
Okere said, “We want to react to the statement made by the Minister of Education as published on Tuesday, April 9, 2013. According to the report, the minister said that despite public outcry against the existing dichotomy between HND and degree holders for several years, no formal document has been presented to the Federal Government to make both qualifications at par.
“We do not want to join issues with the minister. But we just want to tell the minister that she may not have been adequately briefed on this topic.
“We have in our possession so many documents, including the Federal Executive Council decision, the Federal Government white paper and the Council on Establishment memo on this matter.
“It will interest you to know that even the Ministry of Education summoned a stakeholders’ forum to deliberate on this matter. And the Council on Establishment was empowered to go to a meeting in Akwa Ibom State in 2010 to issue the circular.”
He further stated that the Federal Government’s white paper on the matter as released in December 2006 directed that the undue dichotomy and ceiling on the salary grade/rank attainable by HND holders should be removed