THE RECENT DISPUTE between the National Universities Commission and the National Board for Technical Education over a 'top-up' scheme to convert Higher National Diplomas gained in polytechnics to bachelor's degrees granted by universities is ridiculous. President Bola Tinubu and Education Minister Tahir Mamman should step in immediately to put an end to the nonsense.

Both agencies have fought over who has the authority to award degrees and attempts to "convert" HNDs to degrees. According to reports, the NBTE is looking for partnership with overseas universities to develop "an alternative to the post-graduate diploma" for HND graduates who want to pursue a career in academia.

The NUC maintains that the NBTE lacks such authority. Furthermore, it said, "Both the NUC Establishment Law and its Operational Law: Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions) Act vest in the Commission the powers to superintend and regulate university education in Nigeria, lay down minimum academic standards in the nation's universities and other degree-awarding institutions, and accredit their programmes."

But the NBTE countered, “Only the FME (ministry’s) Division of Evaluation and Accreditation has the power to assess the foreign degrees (not NUC) after the students have graduated.”

Mamman should take over.

HNDs and bachelor's degrees are not the same, despite their resemblance. Both are useful. Superiority or inferiority claims are also incorrect. Trade certificates, professional craftsmanship qualifications, and polytechnic education were developed to drive industrialisation by combining practical and technical training with academic grounding in order to provide skilled technicians for factories, mechanised farms, and offices, as well as social services infrastructure.

Polytechnic graduates were in high demand from the 1960s to the 1980s, when Nigeria's industrialisation was taking off, with textiles, automobile assembly factories, drinks and steel rolling mills, and electronics assembling among others sprouting. They are struggling for relevance today, as manufacturing is being phased out.

The misguided ‘top-up’ reflects the lack of a viable and functional national developmental plan tied to the country’s educational structure.

The real issues remain. The wage entry-point disparity between HND and degree holders in the public service sparks accusations of discrimination. In 2021, the National Assembly intervened, passing a bill to abolish the dichotomy, but the then-president, Muhammadu Buhari, withheld assent. A certificate cannot be "topped up." There are already prescribed and effective routes for HND holders to upgrade their skills through postgraduate programmes in universities.

The NBTE needs to reinvigorate the importance of the technical education and to engage government to drive the much-needed industrialisation in the country. Government should revitalise the mining, and industrial sectors. It should push for mechanised farming and ICT by creating an enabling investment environment, and investing in infrastructure. This will rejuvenate polytechnic education. The OECD said major world economies have transitioned from, and outsourced manufacturing, and more than 70 per cent of their GDP now comes from services, thus reducing the need for polytechnics. Many UK polytechnics have been restructured to universities utilising the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. They did not “convert,” or “top up” HND to degrees!

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Polytechnics are still important, according to experts, because the HND programme combines practical work experience and academic studies for hands-on skills, whereas the bachelor's degree focuses on quantitative skills in the classroom with lab-based courses. Polytechnic education was introduced in Nigeria to drive mechanisation and industrialisation through the training of technical manpower, and it must not be erased.