PAT UTOMI WAS WRONG ON THE SCRAPPING OF HND
By: Festus Edoreh
Initially, I had not considered it necessary joining issues with Prof. Pat
Utomi on his views in the controversial scrapping of the Higher National
Diploma (HND) from the Nigerian educational system. But counting on the
fact that Prof. Utomi is a stakeholder in the Nigerian project, and could
be (or, is) one of the counted vibrant professors Nigeria may have paraded
in recent time, I had a rethink, but to put issues in their appropriate
perspectives.
No doubt, Prof. Pat Utomi is known for eloquent speeches and proactive
approaches as is evident in the success of the Lagos Business School and
the Pan African University. Prof. is very passionate about the teaching
profession, and believes that with it he could influence the base and
capacity of scholars and impact on the people around him. However, Prof.
Utomi seemed to be impacting wrongly on the society when he canvassed for
the scrapping of Higher National Diploma from a developing third-world
economy like ours.
Perhaps, it was the interview anchored by Ojiaku Kalu at page 38 of the
Saturday Sun, Vol. 5, No. 294 of September 6, 2008 in which among other
things Prof. Pat Utomi, an erudite scholar was credited to have lent his
support to the scrapping of HND from our school system on the presumed
ground that “the training received in the institutions that award the
certificate don’t seem deep (enough)”.
Thus, he argued that “if the certificates were qualitative, the market
would not stand against their use.” Whereas Prof. Utomi had also in that
same interview identified a problematic situation that “we have cultural
problem hung on degrees”. I only wondered if the Prof. is not already
entangled by that cultural syndrome.
It is a sad commentary to run that in Nigeria if you have obtained the HND
degree from a polytechnic and desires to further your education, the
discriminatory system will not allow you to go straight and acquire your
Masters degree without requiring or rather compelling you to firstly seek
a Post-Graduate Diploma (PDG). That unfortunate discrimination alone is
sufficiently embarrassing and psychologically degrading enough to generate
unhealthy rivalry in the open market. Prof. Utomi need not to be reminded
that with this type of imbalance in our society, how would the market not
stand against the certificates?
However, the Prof. was able to distinguish the Petroleum Training
Institute (PTI), Effurun/Warri as having “been able to build remarkable
ventures with their technical know-how”. Yet, Prof. could not just hide
his bias and crooked ideas for the scrapping of the Higher National
Diploma. It doesn’t matter to Prof. Pat Utomi what implications it has
for a developing technological economy like our. I just need to add that
the PTI, Effurun/Warri which tinkles Prof. Utomi’s fancy awards both OND
and HND.
Unfortunately, degree qualifications are direct determinant/variables with
which salary scales are structured in Nigerian. In other words, the
government dictates the standard for the quantification and evaluation of
the various degrees in the open market and the preferences attached to the
various degrees, so also with the private sector. Thus, by virtue of the
salary scale structure as it is currently in operation, there is no basis
whatsoever for comparism of the PhD to the OND in the Nigerian market
standard.
Would Prof. Utomi need to be reminded that by the systemic and cultural
syndrome already hung on degrees which the Prof. himself attested to in
the said interview, and the bias already generated against the HND by the
consistent parochial and unbalanced argumentations and unnecessary
distortions, it could hinder the HND from genuinely determining its true
market value, no matter how qualitative the degree may seem?
Prof. Pat Utomi cannot shy away from the simple fact that polytechnics
were introduced into the educational system to broaden the educational
base and capacity as a way of proactive approach. Thus, the issue of
superiority of the degrees is a matter of unnecessary contention. I think
the degrees should rather jointly form a formidable base to reinvigorate
our capacity base and to strengthen the technological, industrial and
economic development.
I can still vividly recall the pragmatic words of Dr. Peter Ayodele Fayose
in the occasion of accepting the Honourary Fellowship of the Polytechnic,
Ibadan (Hon. FPI) on Friday 2nd December, 2005, when he elucidated that
Polytechnic is one of the tripod stands upon which higher education rest
in Nigeria - the other two being the University and the College of
Education. This is a clear indication of putting intellectualism into
progressive and developmental ideology and proactive approaches in
furthering the course of a growing nation.
In that same episode, Dr. Fayose affirmed that in Nigeria, the different
levels of government have adopted education as an instrument, par
excellence, for effecting national development. Thus, Higher education is
one of the items specifically listed in Part II of the Second Schedule of
the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In effect, both
the Federal and State Governments have coordinate jurisdiction on the
subject matter.
Further research has also revealed that Section 5 of the National Policy
on Education (revised), 1981 states that Higher Education should aim at
the acquisition, development and inculcation of the proper
value-orientation for the survival of the individual and society. It
should also aim at the development of the intellectual capacities of
individuals to understand and appreciate their environments.
Higher Education are also mandated to focus on the acquisition of both
physical and intellectual skills which will enable individuals to develop
into useful members of the community, as well as the acquisition of an
objective view of the local and external environments. Instead of basking
under the euphoria of the stone-age ideology, Prof. Pat Utomi ought to be
championing the realization of these key objectives, rather than indulge
in drawing back the hands of time.
It is equally interesting to state that Section 6 of the said National
Policy on Education also listed the Polytechnics as one of the five types
of technical education institutions outside the Universities which offer
technical education. It further defined technical education as “that
aspect of education which leads to the acquisition of practical and
applied skills as well as basic scientific knowledge”.
I need not overemphasize how best Prof. Utomi ought to have put his wealth
of experience and height of educational attainment into use to grow the
baseline of our economy. My expectations of Prof. Utomi should have been
to prevail on government to ensure the realization of these set out
objectives, and to ensure adequate regulation and compliance, instead of
waiting for the open market to steer the strategic ship of technological
growth and development for us.
Sadly, too, the National Universities Commission (NUC) recently alerted
the world that about thirty three (33) illegal universities were operating
in Nigeria and that it had even arrested five promoters of such
institutions. But when Prof. Utomi was confronted with the worries of the
proliferation of universities in Nigeria in that same interview episode,
the Prof. simply humbled himself that the important thing was for the
regulators to ensure that standards are kept. But when it comes to
polytechnics, they just need to be scrapped out because they lack the
depth and adequate training. May be, from Prof. Utomi’s perspective,
regulators cannot ensure that standards are kept in Nigerian polytechnics.
What a pity!
Nevertheless, as a way of pragmatic approach, government should exhibit
some sincerity of purpose in imbibing the western educational culture in
its entirety, as it is operational in the U.S., South Africa and Egypt
just to mention a few, where their polytechnics award even higher degrees.
Do we need to be told that in Nigeria we have a unique challenge? No
Nigerian university is ranked between the first 70 in the world. It is
common knowledge that the Nigerian universities are institutions that
produce sheer technocrats. These are mere dreamers who live in the world
of utopia. But it is the technicians and technologists produced by the
polytechnics that put these dreams into concrete reality and achievable
goals. In any system, all segments work together towards directed-goals. I
dare say that the whole idea about technological and industrial
development of our country lies in the proper funding of the polytechnics
and indeed the educational sector.
The ill crusade against HND in Nigeria by little minds should as a matter
of fact cease. The suggestions of converting the polytechnics into
universities is not even the answer, as it is equally wrong because it
will further devastate the technical/technological manpower of our growing
nation. Instead, the polytechnics should remain, and should be empowered
to run higher degrees like Masters and PhD programs in line with global
trend.
Generally it's a convention globally. Like the MIT in the US; it is
awarding degree up to PhD, and it is still a polytechnics. I think our
polytechnics should continue to award degrees and even higher degrees
because they have the human capability and in some respects they have the
infrastructure to do that, more so, as a developing third-world economy.
And the economy will be better for it. Nigeria’s problem is leadership.
HND is not the problem of Nigeria, certainly not.
Edoreh F. Edoreh
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destinyedoreh@yahoo.com