The Rector, Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Dr. Abdulazeez Lawal, in this interview with SEGUN OLUGBILE argues that the perceived discrimination against holders of Higher National Diploma certificates is self-created

Describe your experience as the rector in the past one year

Leadership comes with challenges and a good leader should not run away from challenges. However, when I assumed office on June 1, 2011, the polytechnic was actually going through some challenges. For instance, the management had consented to the demands of the labour unions in the polytechnics by settling a substantial part of the outstanding salary arrears due to staff on the new salary structure implemented in January 2011. This created a big financial challenge, which we have yet to completely overcome. It is however, significant to note that we have received support from various quarters, both within and outside the state.

The state government has made invaluable contribution to the development of the polytechnic. As of today, there are three ongoing projects on the Ikorodu campus of the institution, which are being funded by the government. These capital projects include construction of the School of Technology Complex; the polytechnic’s Sports Complex and the main access road from Itoikin Gate to Ikorodu main campus. The state government also promptly releases our monthly subvention and provides funds for accreditation of our programmes. My colleagues, too, have been supportive while the workers’ unions and the students have also been cooperative.

How far have you gone in achieving your vision for the polytechnic?

I can say that we are on the right track, as we have been building on the legacies of excellence left behind by successive rectors, administrators and governing councils. We are creating conducive learning environment for our students just as we are reengineering our school of part-time studies by turning all our annexes to part-time centres. This is to ensure that population is in tandem with what the National Board for Technical Education, our supervisory agency, expects; and to ensure that our lecturers are motivated to give their best.

We are also constructing some lecture theatres, including a 2,000-seater hall. We have also strengthened the entrepreneurship development centres with a view to equipping our students with additional vocational and entrepreneurial skills, apart from the knowledge being imparted to them in their various departments. I’m happy because our student portal has been upgraded and their results are now being uploaded on the site. This has put a stop to the agitation occasioned by compilation of results.

How can we end wage disparity and discrimination against polytechnic products?

Let me say that the perceived disparity between a HND holder and his bachelor’s degree counterpart is a creation of the people in government, that is the policymakers, employers of labour and the graduates themselves. The government employment policy that places degree holders ahead of HND holders without recourse to skill and ability that a job seeker has is wrong. For instance, it has been proved that polytechnic graduates of accountancy, engineering and some other professional courses are better on the job than their university counterparts; and this being the case, I believe that an employer of labour should place more emphasis on what a job seeker can do, rather than on what type of certificate he or she possesses.

For me, what the students need are skills required in the job market. But a student that is not developing himself, a student that is not equipped to add value to any organisation has discriminated against himself. Yes, there is discrimination, but no serious employer of labour will throw out a skilful worker with a right attitude!

The nation’s polytechnic system has contributed a lot to the human resources development of this country, and the majority of them are captains of industry. For instance, the current Group Managing Director of First Bank finished here some years ago and there are still a lot of them scattered around the world. So, it’s not about discrimination, it’s about the individual.

I advise polytechnic students to step up their confidence level, get more skills and prove their worth anywhere they find themselves. That is why we have strengthened our entrepreneurial centre and we are also partnering with Portsmouth College, Britain, to equip our students with the right skills and entrepreneurial ability. However, I will enjoin our students to take the programmes seriously. I will also encourage operators of our school system and even tertiary institutions to build self-confidence skills in our youths.

However, one is not saying that the wage disparity and discrimination against HND holders are right; in fact, they should be removed. I’m aware that former President Olusegun Obasanjo made some moves towards this, but nothing has been done. I appeal to the Federal Government to remove all policies that encourage discrimination against polytechnic products.

The Lagos State University has just increased tuition; is LASPOTECH also planning tuition hike?

Though our financier, the Lagos State Government cannot do everything for us, we are not planning to increase tuition. Tuition increment is LASU’s policy, not ours. We are not planning any tuition hike for our full-time students. That’s all I can say about that.

In what ways has your administration impacted academic and human resources development in the college in the last one year?

Our polytechnic is an institution of excellence and we are committed to educational development in Lagos State and in Nigeria in general. To maintain this position of excellence, we have, over the years, been investing in human capacity building through training and retraining of members of staff, quality assurance and provision of enabling environment and this has been yielding positive results.

Since we came on board, we have sponsored over 40 faculty members to local and international seminars and conferences. We also sponsored another batch of over 25 academic members of staff to undergo various Master’s and doctoral programmes within and outside the country. We have also taken delivery of mechatronic equipment donated to us by the National Automotive Council, Abuja. These equipment will enable students to acquire new technological skills to compete favourably in the contemporary global environment. We have constructed a mechatronic workshop to accommodate the equipment.

Apart from all the projects I mentioned earlier, a lot of projects — including the extension of the marketing studio at Isolo Campus and the construction of the automotive mechatronic workshop — are still ongoing. But between June 2011 and May, this year, we have completed two blocks out of the proposed eight blocks of the School of Technology complex.

We have also provided other physical facilities, including additional laboratories for Food Technology and Science Laboratory Technology programmes, a school hall, classrooms, a 59-seater bus for students and rehabilitation of administrative block at Isolo Campus. On academic facilities, all our programmes, including the 36 programmes that the NBTE accreditation came to assess in April, are duly accredited. We also passed the library and institutional accreditation, which we were subjected to this year.

Em-my:
University is the ultimate anywhere in the world.
How do you eXpect the same treatment to be given to a roadside electrician & an HND electrical engineer because he is equally creative like him.
However, in dis era of globalization, it is true dat EFFICIENCY ought to be our prime goal.
But the core factors considered in renumeration are:
*lenth of training
*level of training

The descrimination will not stop until polytechnics operate at the level of uni.
For nw no poly is up to d standard of any uni, only yabatech is meagrely up a few uni.
Nt even auchi dat my bro graduated 4rm.
It is even self evident when JAMB & The Senate approves 180 cut off mark for uni & 160 for poly and odas.

gabreel: WHEN I LISTEN TO SOME PEOPLE'S COMMENT ON THIS SITE. I USUALLY LAUGH.
CAN I SAY THIS, UNIVERSITY AND POLYTECHNIC DICHOTOMY OR DISCRIMINATION IS ALL ABOUT LEGAL ISSUE.
THERE IS NO ONE THAT IS SUB STANDARD TO ANOTHER.
TALKING ABOUT THE ISSUE, WE HAVE ALL SORT OF UNIVERSITY PRODUCTS THAT CAN NOT WRITE A COMPREHENSIVE APPLICATION LETTER AND WHO IS NOT FIT TO EVEN HAVE SECONDARY SCHOOL CERT. FOR EXAMPLE. GO TO LASU, AND OTHER STATE SCHOOL. YOU WILL MARVEL. CERT. IN NIGERIA IS NOW CASH AND CARRY.
I PERSONALLY FOUGHT FOR THE CLAUSE WHEN I WAS STILL A STUDENTS, BUT SINCE YOU CAN 'T CLAP WITH ONE FINGER.I WAS WEIGHED DOWN BY THE THEN MEN THAT BE.
THANKS GOD HAVE BLOCK MY OWN LACUNA R . WHICH EVER THE ONE YOU WANT , I HAVE IT. GLORY BE TO GOD.
SO..... POLYTECHNIC IS NOT A SURROGATE TO UNIVERSITY. IT IS A MATTER OF CONSTITUTION.
SO. FOR THE PEOPLE CONCERN FIGHT FOR THE AMENDMENT AND YOU SHALL WIN.
BYE.

ishmael: your post stinks. And u're a university graduate. I'm not surprised at u not being able to understand and answer the simple chi-square statistics problem posted on a similar thread on NL. And u open ur mouth to insult polytechnics. U're just a disgrace to university graduates.

Em-my:


If going to uni is easy, y didn't you

Em-my:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytechnic_(United_Kingdom)

Em-my:
@ishmael

I know you must be aware that Nigeria is producing inefficient graduates at large.
And of which, one of the deforms is most uni grad nt able to perform simple task like fashola's son who cannot change a plug.
Unis hav a problem & that does nt mean poly graduates should be equated to them. . . .

ishmael: But on a second thought, i think the polytechnic administrators are playing politics with the HND/Bsc discrimination thing. They don't employ HND graduates in the polytechnics as lecturers, they call them instructors. This is discrimination. If the Rector wants nigerians to believe him then he should change that policy in his institution first or better let them protest against it. Charity begins at home.

ishmael: But on a second thought, i think the polytechnic administrators are playing politics with the HND/Bsc discrimination thing. They don't employ HND graduates in the polytechnics as lecturers, they call them instructors. This is discrimination. If the Rector wants nigerians to believe him then he should change that policy in his institution first or better let them protest against it. Charity begins at home.

GMacbeth: well spoken my brother jst imagine that

Gaybriel: by the grace of God, i finished my ND in laspo. And i can authoritatively tell you that they employ HND graduates especially those who came out best in their various schools. I know of one in my department then. By the grace of God, after my ND i gained admission to a Federal University of Technology. I can say with all sincerity that polytechnic is better than university in Nigeria. Poly gives you practical but Uni teach you how to cram. I'm talking from experience.