Eko Hot Blog reports that the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has brought succour to graduates of Higher National Diploma (HND) who want to convert their certificates to Bachelor’s Degrees.
The board through its new one-year top-up programme with foreign accredited universities, has offered conversion of HND to Bsc.
The new development was disclosed in Abuja on Monday through a statement made available to pressmen by the Board’s Head of Media Unit, Mrs. Fatima Abubakar.
According to her, the board’s failure to get legal backing for a proposed direct masters program for affected HND holders pushed it to find how to enhance HND holders in the country because they are the keys to Nigeria’s industrialization and critical skills for delivery.
Stating other challenges HND holders face, Abubakar explained that many polytechnic HND graduates don’t get mobilised for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
She noted that many are admitted into non-accredited programmes, and after the HND, they are not mobilised for the NYSC, so the programme is to facilitate the progression of HND holders to higher degrees.
According to her, “Attempts in the past to get the National Universities Commission to approve a two-year Master of Technology for HND holders in some polytechnics did not see the light of the day.
“Many times, HND Holders are forced to go for a one-year Postgraduate Diploma before they could be admitted into the Master’s Program in Universities.
The disadvantage of the PGD is that holders who continue to do PhD and wish to migrate to a Nigerian University will always be queried to produce their first degree, even when they have doctorates.
”To end this unwarranted prejudice, NBTE has now created this progression pathway for HND holders. This can be accessed at https://topup.nbte.gov.ng.
”NBTE has now created a HND admission portal for use by all polytechnics. Only accredited programmes shall be visible on the portal, and NYSC shall have viewing rights to know admitted candidates to be mobilised.
”This will hopefully bring an end to illegal HND admissions of unaccredited programmes and, at the same time, ensure carrying capacities are adhered to for quality assurance.
”Finally, the board wishes to appeal to Mr. President to please sign the bill removing the HND-BSc Dichotomy in the public service as passed by the last National Assembly
“This is to end the unjust and undeserved discrimination against graduates of the polytechnic system.”
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