BETWEEN HND AND BSC
The great aim of education is not knowledge but action. - Herbert Spencer
Ordinarily, by virtue of the number of years required to obtain the Higher National Diploma (HND) and Bachelor Science (BSC) one would think that the HND and BSC are the same but in Nigeria the reverse is the case.
The discrepancy between these two has lingered and will continue until something drastic is done to it. The Head of the Civil Service, Mr. Steven Orasanya even affirmed it from his school of thought that there is no way that the HND can be compared to the BSC irrespective of the fact that it will take the same number of years to acquire the result. And this is why holders of HND in the civil service are left without promotion after a certain period. Recently, The Federal Road Service Corps released guidelines for recruitment and again the HND was placed below the BSC.
The issue is not whether the HND and BSC are of the same grade, but it is whether result obtained makes a better student. I don't think that holders of BSC are in anyway better than HND holders just because of where they obtained the knowledge. I am speaking for myself and other millions of polytechnic students who know their onion. If I must ask, what proof does anybody have that university students can perform well than polytechnic students? I see that we have down graded academic pursuit in this part of the world. The government has created a platform to make people feel that the HND is second class to the BSC. What is the difference between an individual who studies Accounting in the polytechnic and a university graduate that studies the same Accounting? The only difference is the name of the institution. See, whether you study at the best university in the world and I attended a polytechnic, provided we studied the same course
there is no parameter you can use to prove that you are better than I am. It all boils down to mindset. If you believe that a university graduate is better than you a polytechnic graduate so be it. “Going to school should not be an end but rather a platform for improving an individual's knowledge”. Today many see gaining admission into higher institution as the ultimate. I am of the view that where you study does not matter but it is your ability to use the knowledge acquired into action. Any good student that knows what he or she went to do at school should be able to deliver no matter the kind of institution. Many are in the university today not because they want to acquire academic knowledge but because they want to be identified as part of those who went to the university. Carry out your own research and tell me if the students in the university have been adjudged to be the best among those in tertiary institutions in the country or anywhere
else in the world. The Nigeria government on its part has failed by placing university graduates above those in the polytechnics, and this is killing the academic ambition of many. You find individuals who finished their secondary school for more than 7years at home all in the name of wanting to go to the university.
Until we change our orientation that education is not just about knowledge (what you have learnt) but what you can deliver, then we would only end up producing thousands of graduates yearly who have the knowledge but can not deliver people.
By NATHANIEL A. ABDULLAHI
Email: [email protected]