The Academic Staff Union
of Polytechnics (ASUP) has described as demoralising, the erstwhile
dichotomy between HND and B.Sc in the country. Its National President,
Comrade Usman Dutse, a lecturer in the Department of General Studies,
Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, made this known in an interview on
Wednesday. “At the last meeting of the council on establishment a memo
was presented by the minister of education demanding the removal
of the dichotomy placed on HND and B.Sc graduates. “The minister said
the reason dichotomy was placed ab initio, has now been overtaken by
events. “And now if you look at the environment and the situation that
we have in the country at the moment, you would see that the abolition
of the dichotomy is long overdue. “One of the major reasons the meeting
and other stakeholders gave for the abolition of the dichotomy is the
hitherto different entry requirements into both the university and
polytechnic. “Now the requirements have been harmonised. There was also
the issue of curriculum, which was not wide. “The issue of dichotomy was
demoralizing to polytechnic graduates. “We have a lot of HND graduates
in the civil service and they have contributed a lot, but that dichotomy
is killing their morale because they feel that their qualification is
not being appreciated. “Now it has been discovered that performance at
work is not based on the certificate that people have or where you come
from, but on the skills and the ability you have. “Experience has shown
that there are a lot of HND holders that perform better than some degree
holders.’’ Dutse noted that the dichotomy had created a flawed mindset
among parents and employers that university degrees were more
prestigious than higher national diplomas. “The dichotomy even made
people to give preference to university education at the expense of
polytechnic education because if you look at the patters of application
for admission to tertiary institutions every year, you will see that
applicants keep applying more to the universities. “In the last
admission, 1.6 million applicants applied to the universities, but only
38,000 applied to the polytechnics, while only 29,000 applied to
collages of education. “And the major reason for all that was this
dichotomy thing. “Out of the 1.6 million people that applied to the
universities, only 300,000 were admitted. “It means that 1.3 million
applicants would not be offered admission. “So, dichotomy has denied
people polytechnic education, but with the abolition of that dichotomy
now, the tide will change a little especially with the Federal
Government now talking about diversifying the economy. “I believe that
the diversification process will lay a lot of emphasis on technical and
vocational education and that is where polytechnic education is
strongest.
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