EDUCATION

 BY OSITA NOBLINE CHIDINMA

TIME TO B RING TO A PAR THE DEGREE / HND DICHOTOMY

For so long, there have been a lot of nagging and begging issues over the continous disparity between degree holders and Higher National Diploma holders.

Naturally, the degree holders are those who graduated from the university, while their counterparts with Higher National Diploma are graduates of Polytechnic.

As at today in the work place both private and public job, polytechnic graduate, are always discriminated and treated as inferiors below their colleagues from the university. For instance, in a situation where a Bsc holder and HND holder secured a job at the same time, the person with Bsc from the university would be place in level 8 ahead of that person with HND from the polytechnic who would be placed at level 017.

This has not gone down well with polytechnic graduates who has continued to agitate for a parity between them and those of their counterparts with Bsc so as to bridge this ugly gap which has continued for so long.

Research conducted recently, has it that polytechnic graduates perform very well wherever they secure a job more than their university counterparts as a result of many practical exposures and other rigorous academic learning, therefore no justification to continue to place polytechnic graduates as second class citizens below their university counterparts.

As the world has continued to clamour for advancement in technology, polytechnic has been able to live up to the task, being the reason for its existence, and Nigerian government should as a matter of urgency through her various agencies ensure adequate and proper findings of polytechnic education as well as bring it to far with that of the university.

This has become important because no country in the world can survive without technological advancement, just as the polytechnic is seriously setting the pace in technological advancements, for others to follow.