Senate President David Mark has advised that the Bill for an Act to Abolish and Prohibit Dichotomy and Discrimination between First Degrees and Higher National Diploma in the same Profession/Field and related matters be sent for public hearing. Mark said this was in order to get the views of relevant stakeholders on the way forward, as he admitted that it would be difficult for the lawmakers to legislate on the matter. The Bill however scaled the second reading in the Senate on Wednesday after a heated debate on its relevance. “The problem here is whether we can legislate on this. I think obviously that is not going to work for several reasons that we have all advanced here,” Mark said. “We can’t legislate here and say you must employ an HND instead of employing somebody with B.SC. “I think it is more of attitude than what we can legislate on but we can get an arrangement where the polytechnics begin to award degrees, in which case the polytechnics will no more be polytechnics; they will be universities,” the Senate President said. “Our attempt really to equate HND to a degree is not likely to work. Nobody who has done a degree has gone back to the polytechnic to do HND and you can’t blame that logic. “The whole essence of allowing the bill to go through second reading and public reading is for us to get more ideas about how to get the way forward. “That will be the only benefit that will come out it,” he said. The lawmakers sought to resolve controversy over wage disparity and gross discrimination against HND holder in public and private sectors of the economy, with the lead debate, presented by Sen. Patrick Akinyelure (PDP-Ondo), highlighting the need to abolish the discrimination. Akinyelure said that findings had proven that some polytechnic graduates were in some cases better on the field than their university counterparts. “To all intents and purposes, a government employment policy that places degree holders ahead of HND holders without recourse to skill and ability of the HND holder thereof does more harm than good to the nation’s development plans. “Therefore, the aim of the bill is to promote the technological advancement of our great nation by encouraging many qualified candidates to pursue polytechnic and technological advancement,” he said. The Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu,in his comment, noted that even if the bill did not succeed, it would help to raise awareness on the dysfunctional nature of the country’s educational system. He decried the growing trend where polytechnics offered courses outside their field, adding that in order to correct the abnormally, all polytechnics should be converted to degree awarding institutions. “All we need now is to expand the knowledge base of our polytechnics, increase entry qualification and employ qualified teachers for the polytechnics. “We should then make conscious effort to set up technical schools that would award only diploma to support our industries and help the system industrially. “To say we will abolish the dichotomy is difficult. The committee to handle the bill should invite experts to look into harmonising the institutions,’’ he said. I will like to know u take on this
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 08:30:13 +0000
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