FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SCRAPS HND CERTIFICATE, MAKES FRESH RULE FOR POLYTECHNICS

Federal Government has scrapped Award of HND

Certificates by Polytechnics.

The award of HND will be limited to only the

students currently admitted for the programmes.

All the programmes currently being run by polytechnics, which are

not technology-based, and which are about 70 per cent, will

be scrapped. 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.To kick-start the new

policy, the nations 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.

With education being on the concurrent list, the states may

wish to consolidate their tertiary institutions. But if they do

not wish to follow the federal example, their programmes will

continue to be regulated by the relevant agencies of the

Federal Ministry of Education.The first bill will concretise 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.

The Minister said that The HND certificate will remain a legal tender

in Nigeria and holders of such certificate will continue to be

recognised as the equivalent of first degree holders without

discriminatory remunerations and limit to progression in the

work place.

And that the NCE certificate will be retained as the minimum

teaching qualification at the basic level of education. Any

higher qualifications by these private or state-owned

polytechnics will be only affiliation with a university. So, HND

is no longer in existence, but existing HND will be respected

and considered legal