The federal government has stopped polytechnics, monotechnics and other allied tertiary institutions from awarding degrees to graduates.
This was confirmed in a circular December 1, 2022 released by the National Board for Technical Education forwarded to heads of the affected institutions.
A copy of the circular was signed by the board’s Director, Polytechnic Programmes Department, Ogoh Ngbede.
The federal government has expressed its dissatisfaction with the rate tertiary institutions offer courses and programmes which contradict the motives for the establishment of the said tertiary institutions.
He revealed that the government has given the affected tertiary institutions the grace of 4 years to conclude the last set of programmes and graduate the last set of admitted students for such programmes.
The circular partly reads: “Polytechnics and other technical institutions in the country should immediately stop admitting students into degree programmes.
“Similarly, polytechnics and allied institutions awarding Nigerian Certificate in Education should restrict themselves to technical courses.
“However, already admitted undergraduates for these programmes should be allowed to round up the programmes into which they are already admitted.
“Institutions have been given a period of four years (up to 2026) to graduate their last set of students for such programmes.”
The Informant247 reports that it has always been the view and interest of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP that the government should allow polytechnics to issue degrees.
The National President of the union, Anderson Ezeibe, revealed that the issuance of degrees by polytechnics would put an end to the current discrimination between graduates of universities and the polytechnics.
The national president said, “HND is no longer as attractive as it used to be to Nigerian youths because of the age-long dichotomy.
“Policymakers have made it a rule that once an individual has an HND, he cannot attain the peak of his/her career, then why are they continuing to force it on people, why don’t they phase it out and replace it with Bachelor of Technology?”
When called upon to react to the new development, he said he would get back to pressmen later in the evening.
The Director of Programmes, Reform Education Nigeria, Ayodamola Oluwatoyin, while reacting to the development during an interview, supported the decision of the government.
She said, “It is a very good initiative. Universities and polytechnics exist for different reasons. While it is largely believed that universities focus on theories, polytechnics focus on practical ones. So why should one want to take over the duty of another?
“However, it is worthy of note to remind the government about to promise to eliminate the dichotomy between degrees and Higher National Diplomas. We need to understand that the two awards serve different purposes hence, one should not be seen as lower than the other.”