FG Moves Against Polytechnics Awarding Degrees, As ASUP Disagrees

The Federal Government has asked polytechnics, monotechnics and other allied institutions to stop awarding degrees.

The National Board for Technical Education's Director, Polytechnic Programmes Department, Ogoh Ngbede announced the government’s directive in a circular to heads of the affected institutions in a circular marked TEB/PRO/E/12/Vol.11/132 dated December 1, 2022.

Ngbede, in the circular, expressed the Federal Ministry of Education’s dismay at the increasing number of tertiary institutions in the country offering programmes for which they were not originally designed.

He however clarified that the government had given the affected institutions four years to graduate the last set of students already admitted for such programmes.

The circular read in part, “Polytechnics and other technical institutions in the country should immediately stop admitting students into degree programmes.

“Similarly, polytechnics and allied institutions awarding Nigerian Certificate in Education should restrict themselves to technical courses.

“However, already admitted undergraduates for these programmes should be allowed to round up the programmes into which they are already admitted.

“Institutions have been given a period of four years (up to 2026) to graduate their last set of students for such programmes,” the circular concluded

It will be recalled that the decision however contradicted the position of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics ASUP who had over time called on the government to allow polytechnics to award degrees.

The union’s National President, Anderson Ezeibe, noted that the award of degrees by polytechnics would end the current dichotomy.

“HND is no longer as attractive as it used to be to Nigerian youths because of the age-long dichotomy",he stated

“Policymakers have made it a rule that once an individual has an HND, he cannot attain the peak of his/her career, then why are they continuing to force it on people, why don’t they phase it out and replace it with Bachelor of Technology?”

According to him, the Nigerian polytechnic system has all it takes in terms of infrastructure and human capital to award Bachelor, Master’s and Doctorate degrees in the area of technology.