It is no longer news that over the years many Nigerians, especially those in the corridors of power, have given priority to issues that are not irrelevant and appears not to have any value to the development of this country. While many countries of the world have continued to plan and reel out best strategies on how to be at the fore front in terms of technology our country Nigeria is still much on ground in its quest to ruin technical education. Definitely, this is occasioned by the continued dichotomy between holders of degree and Higher National Diploma (HND).
I was compelled to write about this after reading the words of Martin Luther King which says "Our life begins to end the day we become silent about things that matters" and Winston Churchill says that "If the eagles are silent the parrot begins to jabber".
The Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) and Higher National Diploma (HND) are just titles which we get after going through the university and polytechnic education respectively. But rather than concentrating on the competence of the holders we focus our attention on the title which is doing our nation bad than good.
The issue of whether you have B.Sc or HND should be totally erased from our mentality and competence should be the crux of the matter; how and what an individual contributes to the society and not the paper.
Nigerians celebrate certificate and if we are to go by what is obtainable in other developed nations, then the issue of disparity should put aside and if a graduate is seeking for employment the interview should be judge on the basis of the wealth of experience the individual possess and not the title he/she carries.
It is also interesting to note that in public parastatals this issue is still prevalent and the gap has not been bridged. One would think the Federal and State Government would treat its staff better than a private employers, but the reverse is the case as HND holders would never progress beyond grade level 14 not as a result of incompetence but due to the type of school they attended
The argument is that degree holders are trained to be thinkers and managers while HND holders are trained to work with their hands. I think this is not correct because what stops the HND holder from being adapt in thinking and strategy? Polytechnic graduands are infact trained to be both managers and practical oriented personnel's.
The ongoing discrimination against polytechnic graduates bespeaks double standards for nation that is desperate to reposition itself technologically and structurally to meet with the demands of the 21st century. China designed and launched our satellite and engineers from other countries build and operate our refineries and the best of roads in this country is constructed by foreign contractors, yet we discriminate against HND holders. Somebody should kindly tell me what leaps and bounds have we been able to surpass by the expertise of university BSc degree.
Despite employers complaints that graduates are poorly prepared for work, and that the academic standards has fallen considerably over the past decade, polytechnic graduates are more on the receiving end as they are hardly given a chance or offered a level playing ground with their counterpart from the university to prove their worth.
Even in the polytechnic work system which is supposed to protect the interest of its graduates (HND) is not doing that. The case is the same as university B.Sc degree holders become lecturers, Head of Schools and even Rector, while the HND holders are called instructors instead of lecturers and cannot attain any of these positions excepts they get additional degree from the university.
Our educational system got its foundation from the colonial masters (Britain) but even in the UK educational systems under the further and higher educational act, the 35 polytechnics in the UK were elevated to university status and given powers to award bachelors, masters and Ph.D degrees. Most countries with British system of education have done the same thing and eliminated the distinction between polytechnics and universities to varying degree. It is time to bridge ours too in order to motivate and encourage our graduates towards the development of the nation.
If Albert Einstein the great mathematician and one of the world's greatest thinkers is a polytechnic graduate, then HND holders are not to be discriminated against. Probably if Albert Einstein was a Nigerian, he would not had worked in the civil service, if he does he would not be promoted beyond grade level 14, or be forced to acquire a post graduate diploma to pursue advance degree due to discrimination. But Albert Einstein a 1900 graduates of mathematics and physics from the Zurich polytechnics was never asked to do so by the University of Zurich where he earned his Ph.D.
HND should therefore be abolished if it cannot be equated with B.Sc and National Diploma (ND) be retained to supply the nation's middle level manpower to serve as a foundational qualification for entry into bachelors degree programme
Femi writes from Mass Communication Department, Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Niger State.
