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
theSsenate on Wednesday.
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. www.punchng.com/news/degreehnd-dichotomy-bill-passes-second-reading-in-senate/

Ok now