A bill to abolish the discrimination between Bachelor of Science, BSc, degree holders and Higher National Diploma, HND holders scaled its second reading in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.......CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE>>>>>
The Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, noted that the bill sought to replace the HND with a Bachelor of Technology, BTech.
This would enable polytechnic graduates to compete favourably with university graduates.
The bill, sponsored by Fuad Laguda from Lagos State, also emphasised the importance of technical education.
Speaker Abbas stated that the position taken by all polytechnic boards in Nigeria is “the abolition of the HND and, in its place, the introduction of the Bachelor of Technology, so that at least graduates of polytechnics will be able to compete with those from universities.”
“At the same time, they are calling for hybrid supervision, where the degree component of polytechnic education will be handled by the NUC (National Universities Commission), while the national diploma will continue to be overseen by the NBTE (National Board for Technical Education).
“Because of the degree component of this amendment, they believe that the qualification for the position of rector should also be upgraded to a PhD holder at the minimum. Since we are now talking about degree programmes, it is only proper for such an institution to have a PhD holder as its head,” he said.