Welcome, Guest: Register On Nairaland / LOGIN! / Trending / Recent / New
Stats: 3,143,425 members, 7,781,241 topics. Date: Friday, 29 March 2024 at 11:09 AM

HND Discrimination Bill Narrowly Scales Second Reading In Senate - Education - Nairaland

Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Education / HND Discrimination Bill Narrowly Scales Second Reading In Senate (584 Views)

Hnd/b.sc Holders Discrimination: Irrelevant, Dangerious & Unconstitutional. / HND Discrimination Bill Narrowly Scales Second Reading In Senate / Jamb Result To 3-yrs Scales Second Reading In House Of Reps (2) (3) (4)

(1) (Reply)

HND Discrimination Bill Narrowly Scales Second Reading In Senate by kinggenesis(m): 11:07am On Oct 23, 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 bill, which scaled second reading after a heated debate
at plenary on its relevance, seeks to resolve controversy
over wage disparity and gross discrimination against HND
holders in public and private sectors of the economy.

The Senate President, Sen. 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 abolition 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,’’ he
said. Mark, who did not out rightly condemn the bill, said it
should be sent for public hearing, to get the views of
relevant stakeholders on the way forward on the issue of
dichotomy.

He, however, said that “our attempt really to equate HND to
a degree is not likely to work. Nobody who has done a
degree has gone back to the polytechnic to do HND and
you can’t blame that logic.

“The whole essence of allowing the bill to go through
second reading and public reading is for us to get more
ideas about how to get the way forward.

“That will be the only benefit that will come out it’’, he
said.

The lead debate, presented by Sen. Patrick Akinyelure
(PDP-Ondo), highlighted the need to abolish the
discrimination between HND and First Degree.

Akinyelure said the continuing 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,’’ he said.

Some lawmakers, however, argued that rather than seeking
to abolish the dichotomy, efforts should be made to
transform all polytechnics to degree awarding institutions.

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.

He decried the growing trend where polytechnics offered
courses outside their field, adding that in order to correct
the abnormally, all polytechnics should be converted to
degree awarding institutions.

“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.

On his part, Sen. ITA Enang (PDP-Akwa Ibom) decried 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.

He also called for 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 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.

Similarly, 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 U.S. 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,”
he said. (NAN)


http://dailypost.ng/2014/10/23/hnd-discrimination-bill-narrowly-scales-second-reading-senate/
Re: HND Discrimination Bill Narrowly Scales Second Reading In Senate by beatsbyj2g(m): 12:39pm On Oct 23, 2014
U guys keep forgetting abt something

JAMB! JAMB!! JAMMMMMBBBB!!!! FIND SOMETHING TO DO WITH/TO JAMMMBB!!!!















Dats all
Re: HND Discrimination Bill Narrowly Scales Second Reading In Senate by Linzo(m): 2:32pm On Oct 23, 2014
Please God ooooo help this bill to work out for us

(1) (Reply)

A Cheaper And Reliable Means Of Obtaining Your Degree In Pharmacy Or Medicine. / KADPOLY Post-utme Result 2014/2015 Released / 8 Things To Remember When Everything Goes Wrong

(Go Up)

Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health
religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket

Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)

Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 20
Disclaimer: Every Nairaland member is solely responsible for anything that he/she posts or uploads on Nairaland.