The Federal Executive Council, FEC, on Wednesday where the approval of a comprehensive reform of Nigeria’s tertiary education system with the scrapping of the award of the HND, limiting it to those the students currently admitted for the programmes.
Under the new rule, the polytechnics will now become campuses of the proximate universities with the Vice Chancellors of those universities appointing provosts for the polytechnics, subject to the ratification of the Universities Councils.
The polytechnics will now be limited to award of the National Diploma (ND) while those desirous of further education will be awarded the Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech) by the proximate university.
With this decision, the nation’s two most prominent polytechnics – Yaba College of Technology and Kaduna Polytechnic – will henceforth be known as City University of Technology, Yaba and City University of Technology, Kaduna.
And to give legal teeth to these approvals, the FEC approved the submission of two Executive bills to the National Assembly for enactment.
The first bill will concretize the setting up of the two city universities while the second will approve the preparation and consolidation of all federal polytechnics and colleges of education as campuses of proximate universities.
The Ministry of Justice will do the preparation and submission of the two bills to the National Assembly.
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, told journalists after the weekly meeting of the council that under the reform measures, his ministry would, however, continue to license private polytechnics and colleges of education for the award of qualification at ND and National Certificate in Education (NCE) levels.
He said, “There will be no more award of HND.
“After we have exhausted the current students under the programme, there will be no more award of HND. This means that there will be no fresh admission for HND programmes. And in addition, any programme that is not technical will be out of the polytechnics.
“About 70 per cent of polytechnic graduates are in the non-technical courses. It is going to be a rigorous implementation programme.”
A ministerial committee to ensure the smooth implementation of all that is required for the take-off of the reform initiatives is to begin work immediately.
Adamu said, “The HND certificate will remain a legal tender in Nigeria and holders of such certificate will continue to be recognized as the equivalent of first-degree holders without discriminatory remunerations and limit to progression in the workplace.
