A Bill seeking the abolition and prohibition of dichotomy and discrimination between holders of first Degree and Higher National Diploma in the same profession/field has passed through the second reading in the Senate.
The Bill, entitled: “A Bill for an Act to abolish and prohibit Dichotomy and Discrimination between First Degree and Higher National Diploma in the same Profession/Field,” was sponsored by Senator Ayo Akinyelure, representing Ondo Central Senatorial District.
While leading debate on the general principle of the Bill, Senator Akinyelure noted with regret the age long discrimination and dichotomy existing between First Degree and HND in the country and the traumatising experiences of HND holders in their places of work.
According to Akinyelure, the Bill is specifically seeking to end the ongoing controversy over wage disparity and gross discrimination against HND holders in the public and private sectors.
According to him: “The aftermath of continuing injustices, disparity and discriminations meted on products of polytechnics in Nigeria is threatening to derail the nation’s core policy thrust of evolving a technological and scientifically based, self-reliant society in the nearest future.
“As I speak, thousands of would-be polytechnic and technology students are contemplating or have decided to opt for university education because of perceived and real discrimination against HND graduates.
“If this contemplation occurs, there is bound to be a vacuum created in our labour market in this regard and dire consequences are bound to follow this trend.
“Over the years, several entreaties have been put forth to the Federal Civil Service authorities to put a stop to certain glaring wage disparities and discrimination against the HND holders.
“And all these have been to no avail.”
The senator was not happy that certain federal parastatals are known to openly discriminate against HND holders to the extent of limiting their progress within the hierarchy of such government bodies.
His words: “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.”
Akinyelure, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, argued that empirical evidences had shown that polytechnic graduates of accountancy, engineering and some other professional curses are better on the job than their university counterparts.
He explained that all attempts made during the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to bring the HND at par with the degree by the National Council of Establishment did not succeed because they discovered that the problem was with curriculum of polytechnics and that of the university, which could not be tampered with.
The federal lawmaker further said that the council advised the Federal Government then to structure the syllabus of some polytechnics, colleges of education and technology so that they could start awarding degrees.
The various senators who contributed to the debate on the bill expressed the firm belief that the issue of dichotomy between the two certificates could only be addressed if the curriculum of polytechnics was improved upon to ensure that it was rich enough to award degrees.
They blamed the National Board for Technical Education for not doing enough to properly regulate the course and curriculum of polytechnics.
The senators stressed the pertinent need to increase the entry requirements for admission into polytechnics in order to discourage applicants from seeing the institution as inferior.
In his contribution, Senator Ahmed Lawan said that the discrimination was counter-productive, pointing out that the discrimination between HND and Degree was not only found in the Civil Service but also in the education institution and other sectors of the economy.
Lawan urged the Senate to abolish the situation by passing the Bill.
The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, while commenting on the Bill, said: “Even if the bill does not succeed, it will help to raise awareness on dysfunctional nature of our educational system.”
However, some of the senators kicked against the Bill, arguing that the fundamental issues about what the proposed law sought to achieve could not be addressed by legislation.
In his concluding remarks, the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, said: “It is a good bill and if it goes to public hearing, we will know whether it will go or not.
“We should find the way out to give us a way forward.
“Whether we can legislate on this is a difficult thing entirely.
“Nobody who does a degree will go to polytechnic to get HND.
“I think the whole essence of sending the bill for public hearing is for stakeholders to come and make input and that will be the only benefit that will come out of it.”