A bill seeking the amendment of the Federal Polytechnics Act, to review functions of Polytechnics and also eliminate the dichotomy between Holders of Bachelor’s Degree and Graduates of Higher National Diplomas has scaled second reading in Nigeria’s House of Representatives.
The bill is sponsored by the Speaker, Abbas Tajudeen and Fuad Laguda from Lagos State.
Several attempts to amend the polytechnics law by past Houses failed.
The bill seeks to entrench a Level Playing Field between Holders of Bachelor’s Degree and Graduates
of Higher National Diplomas by Providing equal Opportunities between the two categories of Graduates.
Basically, the bill also seeks to prohibit the discrimination against the Higher National Diploma Qualification in the Consideration for
Employment or Promotion in Public and Private Sector in Nigeria.
At plenary ,Abbas Tajudeen,
spoke the mind of boards of all Polytechnics in Nigeria.
He said “their own position is that we should move for the abolishment of HND and replace it with Bachelor of Technology so that at least graduates of polytechnics can compete hand in hand with other universities.
“At the same time, they are proposing a hybrid supervision where the degree component of the polytechnics will be handled by the NUC while the National Diploma will continue to be under NBTE.
Co- Sponsor of the bill, Fuad Laguda who led the debate reeled out several provisions of the piece of legislation.
When the bill receives presidential assent, the legal framework will bring an end to the age long discrimination and humiliation faced by HND holders in Nigeria.
