SCRAPPING THE AWARD OF HND BY POLYTECHNICS.

The Federal Executive Council has approved a comprehensive reform of Nigeria’s tertiary education system, scrapping the award of the Higher National Diploma [HND] by the nation’s polytechnics.

In effect , the award of the HND will be; limited to only the students currently being run by the polytechnics, which are; not technology-based and which are about 70% will be scraped.

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 universities councils.

The polytechnics will now be; limited to award of the National Diploma while those desirous of further education will be; awarded the Bachelor of Technology by the proximate university.

To kick-start the scrapping, the nation’s two most prominent polytechnics; – Yaba College of Technology and Kaduna Polytechnic – will 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 the executive bills to the National Assembly for enactment into law.

With education being; on the concurrent list the states may wish to consolidate their tertiary institutions. but if the do not wish to follow the federal example; their programmes will continue to be; regulated by relevant agencies of the Federal Ministry of Education.

The first bill will concretion the sitting 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 National Assembly.

Ministry of Education, Mall, Adamu, told journalists after the weekly meeting of the council that under the reform measures, her ministry would continue to license private polytechnics and colleges of education for the award of qualification at ND and National Certificates in Education levels.

A state that had never had any federal insitutions like Bayelsa is; to have a college of Technology as a campus of the college of technology as; a campus of college of Technology of the University of Port Harcourt.