×
  • News - North Central - FCT
  • Updated: December 21, 2022

FG Prohibits Polytechnics, Others From Awarding Degrees

FG Prohibits Polytechnics, Others From Awarding Degrees

The Federal Government has forbidden polytechnics, monotechnic and other allied institutions from awarding degrees.

The National Board for Technical Education conveyed the government’s decision to heads of the affected institutions in a circular marked TEB/PRO/E/12/Vol.11/132 dated December 1, 2022.

A copy of the document signed by the board’s Director, Polytechnic Programmes Department, Ogoh Ngbede, was obtained by PUNCH on Tuesday.

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

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

“Polytechnics and other technical institutions in the country should immediately stop admitting students into degree programs.

“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,” part of the statement reads.

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics has 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.

He said, “HND is no longer as attractive as it used to be to Nigerian youths because of the age-long dichotomy.

“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.

 

Related Topics

Join our Telegram platform to get news update Join Now

0 Comment(s)

See this post in...

Notice

We have selected third parties to use cookies for technical purposes as specified in the Cookie Policy. Use the “Accept All” button to consent or “Customize” button to set your cookie tracking settings