As HND Discrimination Bill narrowly scales second reading
in senate
Abuja – 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 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.
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 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,’’ he said.
Mark, who did not outrightly 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)

Dear op, the bill did not pass second reading but first. However, I see the bill terminating when it comes for second reading. The discordant tones during the debate shows that this issue needs more of executive action, hence they pushed it to second reading for more view and advice on the way forward.
My advice to anyone who feels that respite may come soon to end the dichotomy is to forget about it. If you're an HND holder and in the public service, you better go and regularize to BSc before you stagnate in one grade level. For those in the OND/HND programs, civil service will deny you your full potential if the status quo is not abolished.