BSc/HND Dichotomy Resolved.
The National Council on Establishment, at a meeting held in Minna last week, has resolved to remove the dichotomy between university degree holders and their polytechnic HND counterparts.
The council comprises of the Head of Service of the Federation; Heads of Service (HoS) of the 36 states of the federation; representatives of the federal and states Ministry of Education (who were represented by the permanent secretaries), the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), as well as the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).
The Council approved the postgraduate diploma (PGD) as the bridge programme for holders of the Higher National Diploma (HND) to rise to the peak of their career just like their degree holders.
They also said that the entry point for HND holders into the civil service would henceforth be Grade Level 08.
This, it hoped, will effectively and finally resolve the discrimination and career limitation that graduates of polytechnic institutions had for years been subjected to in the workplace, especially the states and federal civil service.
The removal of this dichotomy, among other perceived institutionalised discriminatory policies, had been at the top of a list of demands by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), the umbrella body for polytechnic lecturers and had been the motivation for several industrial crises in the sector.
