Ugochukwu Iwuchukwu
A Lecturer at the Kenule Beeson Polytechnic Bori Dr Joseph Obele has called for an end to the dichotomy between Polytechnic and Universities graduates in Nigeria.
Dr Joseph Obele said this in his reaction to the comment by the Head of Service that those workers with a Higher National Diploma HND should undergo one year of compulsory training before conversion to a university degree.
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan made that comment at a virtual interactive session with civil servants in commemoration of the 2024 Civil Service Week.
She said that the one-year mandatory training programme was to bridge the gap between polytechnic-awarded Higher National Diplomas and university degrees.
However, the Polytechnic Lecturer Dr Joseph Obele noted that the comprehensive objective should be to improve the Academic standard of Nigerian students to measure with global standards and not to create a boundary between the graduates of the University and Polytechnic.
He said that eliminating disparities between the HND and BSc graduates should be the primary goal of the Minister of Education and National Assembly.
“It is expected that the current National assembly will pass the bill abolishing the dichotomy into law. Until then, the polytechnic institutions will not experience numerical growth as many students seeking admission usually nurse an inferiority complex about polytechnics”.
“Our comprehensive objective should be to improve the Academic standard of Nigerian students to measure with global standards and not to create a boundary between the graduates of University and Polytechnic. Ironically, the disparity or dichotomy between the graduates with HND and BSc is indirectly demarketing the polytechnic institutions”.
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“I have been teaching in the Polytechnic for the past 12 years, I can tell you on good authority that the majority of the Polytechnic Students are facing Cognitive dissonance which is a state of mental conflict arising from the dichotomy, some of the Polytechnic Students are not proud that they are schooling in the Polytechnic. In fact, they don’t tell people on the street that they are students of the Polytechnic. Also, I can say boldly that my comparative analysis of teaching at the University for two years and Polytechnic for 12 years shows that Polytechnic Students are more brilliant, competent, and Dedicated than the University Students”
Dr Joseph Obele further called on the National Assembly to facilitate the process of making the Bill for an Act to Abolish and Prohibit Dichotomy and Discrimination between HND and BSc holders into law.
Dr Joesph Obele noted that the dichotomy is destroying the academic structure of the nation.
“We are aware that in 2021 the National Assembly has passed the “Bill for an Act to Abolish and Prohibit Dichotomy and Discrimination between HND and BSc holders. We charge the current National assembly to facilitate the process of making it a law in no distance time as the dichotomy is destroying the academic structure of the nation” he said.
