Resolving the Hnd-degree dichotomy
Holders of the Higher National Diploma (HND) working in the nation’s public sector recently filed a motion before the National Industrial Court, in Abuja, challenging discrimination in career progression. Among the defendants in the case are the National Council on Establishments and the Attorney-General of the Federation. The claimants want the court to order the defendants to implement the directives of government’s white paper on the report of the Presidential Committee on the Consolidation of Emoluments in the Public Sector. Their counsel, Nnaemeka Ejiofor, told the court that HND holders in the public service are not allowed to rise beyond Grade Level 14 as against their BSc colleagues who rise to GL 17 – the peak of career in the public service. The removal of the ceiling on career progression of HND holders is also among the demands of the members of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), who were on strike for about a year.
It would be recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had in 2005 constituted a committee to address qualification disparities in the public service. The recommendations of the committee were not, however, implemented, possibly because the fundamental questions between the two qualifications have neither been clearly resolved nor put into proper context. The Minister of State for Education Nyesom Wike on 6 May 2014 inaugurated a technical committee to again look into the matter. Submitting the report of the committee in Abuja recently, the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education MacJohn Nwaobiala, who chaired the committee, remarked that their recommendations include the need to avoid creating two Bachelor of Technology degrees in the country; adding that the one proposed by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) for polytechnics shall be harmonized with the one awarded by universities.
Those who opine that disparity exists may have gotten it wrong because HND and BSc are two separate academic programmes established for different purposes with different entry requirements and distinct curriculum contents. HND is not a university degree. The two are distinct programmes that seek to achieve different objectives. This suggests that the products of the two programmes would be far from having the same learning experiences and skills – a basic factor to which the perceived disparity in career progression between graduates of the two programmes can be traced. Resolving the dichotomy, therefore, first requires putting issues in their proper perspectives.
It is similarly in recognition of the uniqueness of each of the HND and degree programmes that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) sets aside separate cut-off points for candidates seeking admission into HND courses in polytechnics and university undergraduate programmes respectively, with the former usually having a lower cut-off mark. The admission requirements for degree and HND courses also differ, with that of the former being higher in terms of the number and quality of credit passes required at the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) and other relevant entry qualifications. The length of training and study also differs, with that of degree programme requiring longer tenure. If these are some of the peculiar provisions that distinguish the two programmes, the question of discrimination in career progression becomes a non-issue altogether.
The inequality being contested by HND holders apparently emanates from the misunderstanding of the philosophy behind the establishment of the two programmes and of their respective roles in the development of the country’s economy. The curriculum of HND programmes was principally designed to produce middle-level technical manpower that would be more functional in the industries. University degree programmes, which are more theoretical and research-oriented, have been planned to provide guiding principles for most of the functions at a higher level.
Nonetheless, HND holders who desire to enjoy the privilege of rising to GL 17 like their university colleagues may enrol into relevant university undergraduate programmes. Alternatively, the government could undertake a complete review of the curriculum of HND courses with a view to designing a programme that would lead to the award of a certificate that shall be equivalent to a university degree. This option, however, may put the obectives for which polytechnics were established in jeopardy.