The Registrar and Chief Executive of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, (JAMB), Professor Dibu Ojerinde has announced that soon, holders of the Higher National Diploma (HND) will be equaled to the holders of Bachelor of Technology from any University, as President Muhammadu Buhari has shown the will to implement the waver that will end the Bsc and HND dichotomy.
It would be recalled that President Buhari had received the updated report on the Bsc and HND controversy, which was presented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, MacJohn Nwaobiala last Tuesday.
Speaking to newsmen today, Professor Ojerinde recalled that the last administration set up a committee to look at how the two could be merged.
“The system has not given adequate vision for the other levels of education. We have not encouraged technical education. We have not encouraged Teachers education also; in fact, we have not encouraged agricultural education to the extent that everybody feels that the only way to survive is to go to the University.
“The only way to make it is to have a degree; so I am saying we should revisit our system. We should look at why candidates don’t want to go to polytechnics, and we should look at why they don’t want teachers’ education; we should also revisit why they don’t want agriculture.
“By our experience, most people will like to study law, engineering, medicine, accountancy. These are the top courses been sought for in the universities but nobody wants to study education. So, I see that we have problem in that area and I am sure the Federal Ministry of Education is trying to solve that problem.
“First of all, in Technical Education, there’s dichotomy between Bachelors degree and National Diploma or Higher National Diploma, (HND). It was one of the things presented to Mr. President to find a way of implementing the waiver of the dichotomy between HND and the Bsc degree. The so called HND should now be changed to Btech which means Bachelor of Technology.
“Former President Musa Yar’Adua, may his soul rest in peace, said he doesn’t have any problem with Btech. Unfortunately, government also has not sorted this entire problem. And there are such cases of people like me in this country, I wouldn’t have been able to read. I wouldn’t have been able to go to school. So what I am saying is, government should look at how we can improve technical education.
“Let me refer to what Oby Ezekwensili, the former Minister of Education said. She was determined to implement Btech in our Technical System, college of Education. All this places should be well equipped for Btech.
“Four colleges of Education have been upgraded to universities of Education. You will see the rush into those universities now because they can now get bachelor’s degree. And when they come to the public, they will not be a push away. So this is where we are. I think if I go by what we saw on Wednesday, President Buhari and the Vice President listened and they were interested in what we presented.” [myad]
