Jubilation as Degree/HND dichotomy bill passes second reading in Senate

A Bill for an Act to abolish and prohibit dichotomy and discrimination between University’s degrees and the Higher National Diploma in the same profession and field, scaled the second reading on the floor of the senate recently amid jubilation and thumps up for the lawyer behind the passage.

The bill, sponsored by the member representing Ondo Central Senatorial District, Ayo Akinyelure, specifically seeks to end the ongoing controversy over wage disparity and gross discrimination against HND holders in the public and private sectors.

He said, “The aftermath of continuing injustices, disparity and discrimination meted to 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.”

He said to make matters worse, certain federal parastatals were known to openly discriminate against HND holders to the extent of limiting their progress within the hierarchy of such government bodies.

“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,” he added.

Akinyelure, who is also the Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, further argued that empirical evidence had shown that polytechnic graduates of accountancy, engineering and some other professional curses are better on the job than their university counterparts.

Senators, who contributed to the debate, noted that the issue of dichotomy between the two certificates could only be addressed if the curriculum of polytechnics was improved upon and ensure that it was rich enough to award degrees.

Punch