I was looking up updates on the internet lately and came across talks concerning HND discrimination and motions towards equating both HND and BSC qualifications. This is indeed very infantile. It confirms my notional hypothesis that most Africans don’t fully grasp the socio-developmental activities they’ve adopted from the Europeans and this conspicuously affects the relative results for instance, they study, we also study but the education of their populace visibly affect their economy positively via inventions, innovations and research while ours seem to only increase the pressure of job creation on the government. Na wa o!
The existence of this issue shows that we don’t fully understand the purpose of tertiary education. It is expected that one apply to a polytechnic because she (or he) want to have a technical knowledge of that field of study. But what do we see in our country Nigeria? People going to polytechnics because their jamb results dictates so and they simply obeyed due to the fact that they are not getting younger. This thought process is very detrimental to the development of a country’s economy as it facilitates the generation of an antagonistic and unproductive labour force.
From a pragmatic point of view, as long as colleges of education, polytechnics and universities are all regarded as tertiary institutions, they should attract the same entry requirements. As harsh as that sounds, it’s very logical. When this is enacted, a student can now be qualified to study medicine but choose to study biology in a college of education because he had discovered he will find more fulfillment as a science teacher. No doubt such a student turns out to be a more productive teacher.
Why would a polytechnic student want to be perceived equally as a BSC student in the first place? I believe he wouldn’t if he understands that they both have their area of utility and are trained with dissimilar approaches. He would be concerned about solving technical problems in his economy, generating ideas that will lead to the construction of more effective factories rather than bother only about getting the same salary as a BSC holder. In fact if Nigerian HND students start operating with the problem solving mindset rather than the job seeking mindset, they will in no time, start seeing an advantage in their platform of study.
A BSC holder is more of a scholar who has a broader exposure to theory. On the other hand an HND holder is more of a technician who is trained to provide practical solutions in an industrial environment. Now the question is; how many of our undergraduates have this understanding? Do their career aspirations or their jamb results inspire the tertiary platform they study on?
I believe you get rewarded financially when you study to become a problem solver regardless of your platform of study.
Repent!!
