THE GUARDIAN EDITORIAL
The scrapping of HND: A bad policy

Do you agree with this?

THE Federal Government' decision to scrap the Higher National Diploma (HND) qualification awarded in its polytechnics makes no sense whatsoever.
A certain Professor Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Presidential Technical Committee on the Consolidation of Tertiary Institutions was quoted to have said, somewhat with an air of finality, that from the day the report (of the committee) is finally approved and the necessary changes in the law made, ?in the next few months, there will be no HND as a programme anywhere. It will be abolished and replaced by B.Sc., B.Eng. and B.Tech. as the case may be?.
The professor hinges his committee?s position on the refusal of employers of labour and universities to rate the HND as equal to a university degree. In his considered opinion, therefore, the consolidation of these institutions and the conversion of Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) and Kaduna Polytechnic into universities will solve the problem permanently. We say unequivocally that this is a bad policy based on a flawed, even trivial justification.
First, the reason advanced by the learned professor. No one should deny that the HND is not the same as a degree: whereas both are tertiary level qualifications, the admission criteria differ and the course contents differ, and the specific purpose for which, say, a manufacturer hires an HND holder is not that for which he would hire a university trained engineer. Obviously then, employers of labour, as well as the universities have the right and duty to maintain the distinction, but without falling into the pit of undeserved discrimination. At any rate it is because there is a fundamental difference that the one is called a polytechnic and the other a university. And, while the one can be upgraded to the other, the reverse is never done. But why scrap a major national education policy merely because some interests react to it in their own peculiar way?
Polytechnic education was introduced as a component of our philosophy of manpower development, and for good reason. Not a decision frivolously taken by the founding fathers of the relevant institutions this type of tertiary level education was established by law, conceived, designed, and carried on to meet specific educational ends of the students on the one hand, and the manpower needs of our country on the other. The complement of goals has served Nigeria?s human and national purposes. Indeed, there has never been any doubt about Nigeria?s desperate need for technical expertise; the polytechnics exist to produce trained personnel with hands-on technical skills for the real sector of the economy.
As a general rule, the real sector of the economy is the engine of national economies; in a well-managed economic system, therefore, technical hands that make the industries run, that translate the ideas on the drawing boards into equipment and goods, are most sought after, they are never in need of employment if they so choose. The National Policy on Education (2004) states that the polytechnics shall provide the technical knowledge and skills necessary for agricultural, industrial, commercial, and economic development of Nigeria. But, by their training, technical hands are equipped to self-employ and even create jobs.
The polytechnics are further mandated to give training and impart the necessary skills for the production of technicians, technologists and other skilled personnel who shall be enterprising and self-reliant. Over the years our HND graduates have generally not been found wanting in terms of competence. Besides, very many successful and highly placed persons in government and business are HND holders. There is ample evidence that when it comes to getting the job done, the hood does not make the monk; the certificates don?t either.
That the technical cadre of our country?s manpower is falling into disrepute is a glaring pointer to the abysmal failure of government at two levels: manpower planning and economic management. The factories are closing or relocating at an alarming rate, the ones still in business operate at a fraction of installed capacity, many warehouses have been converted into houses of worship. There is, as a result, a shortage of factories to train polytechnic graduates in the practical aspect of their education.
Over time, there is a growing dearth of properly trained and sufficiently experienced technical personnel to repair equipment, erect buildings and other structures without flaws, and generally service the national economy with their knowledge and skills. There are many products that Nigeria imports but which can be produced here by our technicians if only government would create the enabling environment.
Furthermore, the government is charged by the National Policy on Education to improve immediate and long-term prospects of polytechnic graduates and other professionals with respect to their status and remuneration. Surely this can be done without the cancellation of HND programmes that is being contemplated. The only consolation is that the Federal Government is restricting itself to Federal universities; state governments should refuse to follow the Federal Government?s example in this matter. State Policy on Education should not be based on the imitation of ill-digested models, either local or foreign. It is totally simplistic to argue that Nigeria should convert its polytechnics into universities because another country is doing so.
It needs be stated that the university imparts a particular kind of education, it teaches why things work; the polytechnic teaches how things work. A nation needs both to drive its development process.

http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/editorial_opinion/article01

EDITORIAL & OPINION

Thursday, April 05, 2007  
       
 The banning of HND programmes
THE Federal Executive Council (FEC), took the decision recently, to discontinue the Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes in federal polytechnics. Instead, the polytechnics are to be consolidated into proximate universities to award the Bachelor of Technology degree to their graduates. Two of the federal polytechnics, Yaba College of Technology in Lagos and Kaduna Polytechnic will transmute into city universities as autonomous institutions. The HND certificate will, however, remain legal and continue to enjoy parity with university first degree certificate.
The polytechnics will continue to award Ordinary National Diploma while reserving the award of higher qualifications to their affiliate universities. All non-technical courses will be removed from polytechnics to allow them maximise their capacity to train technicians and technologists. The same policy instrument was extended to Colleges of Education that award the National Certificate of Education. Their affiliate universities will take over the responsibility to award degree certificates in education.
In line with the constitutional stipulation that places education on the concurrent list, the Federal Government left it to the states to decide if they wished to consolidate their tertiary institutions. Those that chose not to do so will continue to have their programmes regulated by the relevant agencies of the Federal Ministry of Education.
The policy shift by the Federal Government is based on the recommendations of the Presidential Committee on the Consolidation of all Federal Colleges of Education and Polytechnics. The committee's name is quite revealing, particularly of the intentions and operational modalities of the government. It is obvious that the Federal Ministry of Education, had already decided to scrap the HND programme from the country's tertiary education system and merely established the Presidential Committee to work towards the answer, as it were. We think that this strategy is wrong.
There is something fundamentally wrong with the country's educational system and not only the HND programme. To be sure, HND graduates have faced serious discrimination in the employment market, where employees would rather give preference to university graduates. The answer, however, does not lie in scrapping the HND programme and fusing polytechnics into existing universities. Such palliatives focus on superficialities and ignore the decay in our educational system; the disconnect between the manpower needs of the economy and the educational system; the structural imbalances in the national economy and its inability to absorb the products of our secondary and tertiary institutions.
Put simply, the economy does not have the capacity to resolve the horrible level of unemployment while the educational system itself is incapable of producing the requisite manpower with the skills and knowledge required by the nation's economy. As such, the nation finds itself in a Catch 22 situation: it produces graduates who are not employable; and runs an economy laid prostrate by infrastructural weaknesses and low capacity and therefore incapable of providing employment for its citizens.
Viewed against this background, the Federal Government's decision to end the HND programmes and to transform our polytechnics into campuses of adjacent universities falls far short of expectation. We believe that what the nation needs is a blueprint for development. The nation needs a well-articulated mission and vision statement backed by a concrete plan and strategy of development. Such a blueprint will perceive the nation, its economy and people from a holistic and fully integrated perspective, it will recognise and provide for complementarities among various sectors and sub-sectors and set the country on the true path to development.
The Honourable Minister of Education, who has demonstrated her capacity to generate ideas for reform, might bring her gifts to bear on what is clearly a national crisis. We urge her and her colleagues in the Federal Executive Council to develop a more holistic and integrated view of the national crisis. The crisis is not limited to the education sector only. It affects virtually every facet of our national life. Or are they not aware of the comatose state of our infrastructure, economy, and health services; the hunger of our people for the basic necessities of life; for knowledge and skills; for jobs and living wages; for a good, conducive, secure and healthy environment, for national harmony; for political and social stability, for national cohesion and for economic development?
Nigerians want their country to compete with the best in the world if only their leaders would develop the vision to take them to the promised land. Tunnel visions such as the one proposed by the Federal Ministry of Education, and adopted by the Federal Executive Council with regard to the scrapping of HND programmes, are mere superficialities. They ignore the fundamentals of our national malaise and can therefore not resolve the crisis in education, much less the national crisis of underdevelopment.

1."To be sure, HND graduates have faced serious discrimination in the employment market, where employees would rather give preference to university graduates.
2.The answer, however, does not lie in scrapping the HND programme and fusing polytechnics into existing universities.
3.Such palliatives focus on superficialities and ignore the decay in our educational system; the disconnect between the manpower needs of the economy and the educational system; the structural imbalances in the national economy and its inability to absorb the products of our secondary and tertiary institutions.

4. the economy does not have the capacity to resolve the horrible level of unemployment while the educational system itself is incapable of producing the requisite manpower with the skills and knowledge required by the nation's economy.

5. As such, the nation finds itself in a Catch 22 situation: it produces graduates who are not employable;

6. runs an economy laid prostrate by infrastructural weaknesses

7. low capacity and therefore incapable of providing employment for its citizens.

Viewed against this background, the Federal Government's decision to end the HND programmes
8. transform our polytechnics into campuses of adjacent universities

falls far short of expectation?

How? for 31 years of injustice ?

HND discrimination would have come to an end long ago, but for government insensitivity to Technical education it is still on ground. The govenment itself encouraged the discrimination when obviously they give preference to only Bsc graduates even in jobs that requires competent Technical manpower (Polytechnic graduates). They employ HND graduates and place them at a lower level and not the same level with Bsc holders.

For now no manson,mechanics etc. Only Okada riders or pure water seller. We do not need the number of civil engineers we have now in the country. 75% of over 16,000 register engineers in the country mainly civil servant in miniseries and teachers.

The Nigerian engineers has no job hence taking over technicians Job.

Hnd-holder:

For now no manson,mechanics etc. Only Okada riders or pure water seller. We do not need the number of civil engineers we have now in the country. 75% of over 16,000 register engineers in the country mainly civil servant in miniseries and teachers.

The Nigerian engineers has no job hence taking over technicians Job.

And they still bragg and call themselves Engineers. bloody Technicians!!!

Joblessness made them pen pushers, and force life out of the practical men. No wonder they call it bad policy. We shall face it squarely together now. no more HND slaves.