Former students of polytechnics throughout Nigeria on Thursday called on the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to sign the Higher National Diploma/Bachelor of Science dichotomy Act before him to support the sustainability and advancement of technology education.
The former students, under the banner of the Forum of Nigeria Polytechnics Alumni Association, which noted that the HND/BSc dichotomy was doing significant damage, said granting assent to the Act by the president would soothe frayed nerves and rekindle expectations for millions of polytechnic graduates in the nation.
The FONPAA Chairman, Mr Obialor Ibebulke, and Secretary, Goke Ishola, also called on the Federal Government to, as a matter of necessity, upgrade Nigerian polytechnics to degree-awarding institutions “for increased academic prowess, as is the norm in advanced climes, as well as to advance the frontiers of technological education.”
“Ibebulke and Ishola, along with other members of the executive, who stated in a communiqué after a two-day Executive Committee meeting held at the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti, also criticized the low financing of the polytechnics in Nigeria.
They called to governments for “increased support for Nigerian polytechnics to further help their academics and better their overall sundry research works.”
The conference also reaffirmed its plea “for the formation of the Nigeria Polytechnic Commission, a body which would primarily be for the management of polytechnics, like the National Universities Commission.”
The National President of the FPA Alumni Association, Abiodun Oyedokun, called on governments to support the polytechnics with the supply of infrastructure and to also aid the system so that lecturers would have access to current equipment and technology.
