Discrimination Against HND Forcing Students To Earn Certificates – Rector

Engineer Dr. Taofeek Adekunle Abdul-Hameed is the Rector of Federal Polytechnic, Ayede, Oyo State, one of the six established in 2021. In this interview with selected journalists, he spoke on how the institution is fairing and why he supports parity in tertiary education.

As a newly established institution, how are you doing in terms of enrolment?

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In terms of enrolment, of the six polytechnics that were established at the same time, we are the one with the highest number of students. We have a total of about 1,200 students as we speak and that is why TETFund will always yield to our request in many cases. Apart from building construction, through TETFund we have students who have been sponsored for Ph.D and M.Sc programmes, and even Institutional-Based Research (IBR). So, we have enjoyed enormous support from TETFund.

The bill to abolish BSC and HND dichotomy has scaled second reading in the House of Representatives. Why do you support parity in the products of the two types of tertiary educational institutions?

I support parity because skills and vocations are the in-thing now all over the world. In advanced countries, skills and vocations are encouraged. If you are talking about China today, it is because they give a premium to entrepreneurship development through skill acquisition and vocational development. I attended over three universities to get my degrees, and I have been in the polytechnic sector for over 30 years, so I can make comparisons. If you look at it, it is because we lay so much emphasis on paper qualifications that is why we are not progressing the way we should as a country. If and only if the government can encourage skills and vocations, we will move faster. Our slogan at NBTE is “Skills rather than degrees” because acquiring skills is the in thing. No nation can develop without promoting skills acquisition.

In the advanced climes, what you see is that when you graduate from polytechnics, you get B.Tech not HND. Even the British that we copied have phased out this HND of a thing. What you see in Britain now is B.Tech, BSc and what have you. So, why is Nigeria the exception? Because of paper qualifications, we want to pride ourselves as being higher than the others… because I am a degree holder, I am better than the HND holder whereas it is not so. It depends on what you are able to contribute to the larger society. It is not just about paper qualification or theories alone. So, I want to appreciate the National Assembly for giving us the opportunity and I want to believe that the bill will eventually be passed and Mr. President will give his assent finally. In fact, we thought that before the expiry of the life of the last administration, it would have been signed, that once you are an HND and a BSc holder, the parity should be there. It is high time we forget about paper qualifications, let’s focus on what we can contribute to society, the positive impacts we can make on the society.

How do you think parity will make a tangible difference in society if it is eventually achieved?

When parity is finally achieved and the polytechnics begin to focus on what they are established to do, sincerely yours, it will impact positively on the society. When I was in secondary school, I knew that if you were an undergraduate of The Polytechnic Ibadan or Yaba College of Technology, when it came to practicals or hands-on skills, they were far better than university undergraduates. But when discrimination became pronounced in the system, these students just went to earn the certificates and just move on to other things; whereas, the purposes for establishing the polytechnics were there. Conventional universities are known more for theoretical things while the polytechnics are there to train manpower that would move the economy of the country forward. Before now, it was said to be middle-level manpower but the polytechnics now train high level manpower too, who impact the society positively.

Artificial Intelligence is taking over the world of technology. How well is your institution positioned to key into AI and sundry technological innovations?

Artificial intelligence is basically ICT and one thing TETFund has done for us is the ICT Zonal Intervention that has made us ICT-compliant. AI is one thing we have been teaching our students and recently, we held a lecture on AI for our students. It was to create awareness so that they can develop interest along that area. So, we are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that our students are current and up to date in terms of technological developments.

In what areas do you need immediate and long-term interventions regardless of how far you have gone?

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The major one for now is the road network to our permanent site. It is the best thing that anybody can do to assist the institution and our administration for now. Of what benefit would about a dozen structures be without putting them to use? The major thing for now is that road network, if we can get somebody to assist us to link our permanent site to Ogbomoso, Odo Oba and to Ajaawa that would be so fantastic. Our temporary site will soon get to a point when it will no longer contain us, and we need more classrooms and offices. We thank our royal fathers and the police for what they have done in terms of security at our permanent site. If we are moving to the permanent site tomorrow, all is set. In terms of accommodation for students, the federal government is encouraging private-public partnership (PPP) and we are currently considering some proposals before us.

What is your projection with regards to movement to your permanent site, have you fixed a time for a possible relocation to the place?

We thought we could move there in December 2024 but unfortunately, the road network is the issue. We have been trying seriously to ensure that the federal government comes to our aid. We have made contacts with the Federal Ministry of Works and we have reached out to the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and the Oyo State government. We have made contacts even with the chairman of Ogo-Oluwa Local Government and recently, we were there together with the local government chairman to inspect the road. So, by God’s grace, we are targeting September this year, all things being equal.