The federal government has ordered polytechnics, monotechnics, and other affiliated schools to cease giving degrees, marking a significant shift away from their previous official stance.
The directive, which was communicated to the heads of the affected institutions through a circular dated December 1, 2022 and marked TEB/ PRO/ E/ 12/ Vol. 11/132, was issued by the National Board for Technical Education and required compliance on their part.
Ogoh Ngbede, who is the Director of the Polytechnic Programmes Department at NBTE, put his signature on the directive.
About six years after the Muhammadu Buhari-led government approved select polytechnics and colleges of education as degree awarding institutions, the government has decided to reverse its stance.
The federal government announced in August 2016 at the conclusion of a meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) that the dichotomy between universities and polytechnics in the country would be eliminated in the future.
In addition, it was said that all of the programmes that are currently being run by the polytechnics will be terminated, despite the fact that they are not technology-based and make up approximately 70 percent of their curriculum.
In accordance with the policy at the time, the polytechnics were transformed into campuses of the nearby universities, and the vice chancellors of those universities were given the authority to appoint provosts for the polytechnics, with the appointment being subject to the approval of the councils of the universities.
The federal government also stated that the polytechnics would only be able to issue the National Diploma (ND), and students who desired to continue their study would have to attend the university that was geographically closest to them in order to get a Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech).
After the meeting of the FEC, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, gave a statement to the media in which he announced that the HND will no longer be awarded.
After we have graduated all of the students who are currently enrolled in the programme, we will no longer be able to award HND degrees.
This indicates that there will be no new students admitted to HND programmes in the future. In addition, the polytechnics will not be offering any programmes that do not focus on technical subjects.
"Around seventy percent of alumni from polytechnic institutions received degrees in non-technical fields. It is going to be a really severe programme of execution."
"The Higher National Diploma certificate will continue to be recognised as the equivalent of first degree holders in Nigeria, and holders of such a certificate will continue to be exempt from discriminatory remunerations and limits to advancement in the workplace.
This provision will remain in effect. Due to the fact that education is on the concurrent list, it is possible that the states will decide to combine their tertiary institutions.
However, if they do not desire to follow the example set by the federal government, then their programmes will continue to be regulated by the relevant agencies of the Federal Ministry of Education," he was allegedly said to have remarked.
The federal government has made it very clear that it is not pleased with the growing number of postsecondary institutions around the country that are now providing courses that were not part of the curriculum when the institutions were first established.
According to the board, the government had given the impacted schools a period of four years to complete the education of the final group of students who had already been admitted for such programmes.
It is imperative that the nation's polytechnics and other technical schools immediately cease the process of enrolling students in degree programmes.
"In a similar vein, polytechnics and other affiliated institutions that are authorised to confer the Nigerian Certificate in Education ought to confine themselves to the teaching of technical subjects.
"However, undergraduate students who have already been accepted into these programmes ought to be permitted to round up the programmes into which they have already been accepted,"
According to what was stated in the circular, "Institutions have been granted a period of four years (up to 2026) to graduate their last cohort of students for such programmes."