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From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has issued a 15-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to regularise the scheme of service between degrees and higher national diploma certificates holders in Nigeria.
Coordinator Zone B of ASUP, Comrade Simji Lumpye, who addressed newsmen at the Plateau State Polytechnic, Jos campus on Friday, said that the new scheme of service as released by the Federal Government through the National Board For Technical Education (NBTE) to Polytechnics in Nigeria, was discriminatory and unacceptable to its members as it’s inimical to the professional progression of polytechnic graduates.
Aside from this, he said that the union observed that the responsibility for drafting the scheme of service and its approval should not be the sole responsibility of the office of the Head of Service/NBTE but should include other stakeholders, especially ASUP.
Lumpye said: “ASUP has rejected in totality the dichotomy in Graduate Assistant Entry Point where a graduate of HND requires an Upper Credit while a Degree holder requires a Second Class Lower to come into the Polytechnic as a Lecturer.
“CONTEDISS 12 is demoralizing, unnecessary and detrimental to the polytechnic sector. This will discourage students from enrolling into the polytechnic and will further widen the dichotomy and students’ apathy to polytechnic education.
“The preference given to Bachelor degree over HND Certificate for appointment of registrars and bursars is highly discriminatory. The deliberate exclusion of HND Pharmaceutical Technology from the document despite a subsisting court order shows a gross violation of the rule of law. The union rejects this and urges the NBTE to make every arrangement and reinstate HND Pharmaceutical Technologists into the document.
“In view of the above observations and others not captured here, the union has issued a 15-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to suspend the implementation of the document or face industrial disharmony.”
