Lagos — South East zonal co-ordinator of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Mr Sylvanus I. Okonkwo in this interview with ERASMUS ALANEME and ANGELA ENE-OKPOTU, speaks on post-Universities Matriculation Examination (UME), merger of tertiary institutions, discrimination of Higher National Diploma (HND) graduates, funding among other issues. Excerpts

Disparity between polytechnic and university graduates in the country.

Actually it is an absurdity to talk of discrimination between the Bachelor of Science degree holders (Bsc) and Higher National Diploma holders (HND) in our country.

One, we actually believe strongly that the university produce the technocrats while, the polytechnics produces technicians and technologists who transform the dreams of the technocrats into concrete achievable realities, hence there should be no need for discrimination at all. It is purely egoistic and this discrimination is being sponsored by the government, while at the same time the latter is pretending to work against the discrimination. Take for instance, the recent advertorial by the Immigration Services places university graduates on the different cadre and the graduates of polytechnic at a lower cadre in their recruitment process. We view this as part of government agenda to discriminate our graduates and we condemn the action in its entirety.

Secondly, we believe the discrimination rarely fits into the whole concept of the NEEDS document and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the government. What is the NEEDS document talking about? The NEEDS is talking about practical realities, NEEDS is talking about graduates of tertiary institutions using their intellect to confront the vagaries of their environment and in all strata of human endeavour. You see polytechnic graduates, not only are competing favourably with their counterparts from the university, but they are always a step ahead when it comes to practical applications of what is taught in tertiary institutions.

Degree awarding status for polytechnics as a way of getting pay rise.

For the government to recognize polytechnics as degree awarding institutions is not actually hinged on pay rise, we are not agitating for increase in our emoluments.

You see the issue is beyond mere dividends for the staff. The point there is that the government, I mean the system we operate in is a neo-colonial imposed system of government and administration which tends to frustrate the genuine efforts of the graduates of the polytechnic. You must know that some of these polytechnic graduates have better result at their West African Examination Council (WAEC) than their university counterparts and they fit more into our ministries, agencies, than the university counterparts and they make more contributions to the national development, especially to the technological and industrial growth of this country. In other words, there should be no need for this discrimination; we are saying there should be level playing ground. When the government wants to abolish this completely what it should do is to allow JAMB, to conduct all its matriculation examinations for people who wants to go to the university, polytechnics and colleges of education at once. Government is the one creating the structure of discrimination by having for the university one and another for the polytechnic and colleges of education. It is not proper, it is totally unacceptable to our union and we call on government not only to remove this disparity, but to allow genuine contributions from these polytechnics graduates to national development.

On same O'level requirement for polytechnic/university entrants.

Yes, that is the stand of my union. We are saying the government should put the admission requirements of the polytechnic at par with that of the university. Five credits is what we are advocating for, so that the best students in this country will have equal opportunity, will have choice either to go to university or to go to the polytechnic. The most important thing at the end is let the graduates from our tertiary institutions be seen to be contributing to our national development. That is the essence of training them!

Post-UME examination

We the lecturers, staff and management in the polytechnic agree and we are equally doing that and the outcome has shown that it is crystal clear that the results posted by JAMB do not actually reflect the intellectual capabilities of these students that the Board is sending to the polytechnics. Now the polytechnics are conducting the post JAMB screening and we are achieving a great result.

Lecturers selling grades and other anti-academic activities.

Certainly, it is demoralizing; it is totally unacceptable to us. We in ASUP, more importantly have condemned it in its entirety. And we continue to urge all our members if they are actually involved to desist from this unethical practice. You see one thing is very clear, the issue of this amorous relationship or sorting of marks may not be peculiar to the polytechnics alone .But what we are saying is that, it is an evil that has to be condemned and we have set up an Ethics and Privileges Committee within the ASUP so that when the management of any polytechnic reports on this issue, the committee will try that person and if found guilty, he would be expelled from the union.

The ASUP/FGN agreement of 2001.

There is need to review that agreement in line with the current reforms and development in education, universally. We are still urging the government to religiously implement the agreement especially the three components of Harmonised Tertiary Institution Salary Structure( HATISS), the retirement age, and the establishment of a commission for polytechnics. It is saddening to observe that even the nomadic education has a commission. Even the primary school has a commission that caters for their own sector but the polytechnics that contribute to national growth and development do not have a commission that takes care of its educational need. It is indeed a sad development.

What of the NBTE?

We view National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) as an amorphous entity. NBTE takes care of technical colleges and all other aspects of lower education. You see, the call for a commission is not a call for a mere change of name. It is a situation where the proposed commission will be properly focused to address the genuine needs and desires of the polytechnics, that is what we are calling for.

Why the incessant agitation for polytechnic to award degrees.

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. The craze about diploma, if it is the thing that leads to the discrimination let the polytechnics 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. So we are appealing to government to move in line with the trend, global trend. It is not just copying one part and leaving the other. Government should be able to copy whole and entire what is available in the US, even in South Africa and Egypt where their polytechnics award degrees and still continue to operate as such because we have a unique challenge, we have a distinct policy or package of focus for the development of this country. And I want to say that the whole idea about technological and industrial development of this country lies in the proper funding of the polytechnic education. Outside this, nothing is happening, the universities are institutions that produce mere technocrats, that is people who dream, but it is the technicians and technologists produced by the polytechnics that put these dreams into concrete achievable goals.

Fear for the merging of tertiary institutions.

The fears are that polytechnics are established by an act of the National Assembly or by decree. And the decree or act clearly states the scheme of service which is in tandem with polytechnic education globally. However, the act that established universities equally established a distinct scheme of service which equally is in tandem with global trend in university education. So in the polytechnic system,, we feel that if government wants to merge these institutions, in fact we don't see it as a merger, it is strongly an acquisition. Because if you are talking of merger, it will be on the basis of equal relationship. We come together and agree on how to merge, to form a big conglomerate but here, it is a case of simple acquisition. The university is seen as a bigger unit that can easily swallow the polytechnic and our fear is take for instance; you don't need PhD to be a chief lecturer in the polytechnic and the chief lecturer is of the same nomenclature with a professor in the university.

So if we are to be merged or to be subsumed or acquired by this arrangement it will definitely affect the career progression of the lecturers and even the students because the situation may arise that those students who graduated with their OND may not be offered admission to pursue higher degrees in the universities as currently carried out. If you have HND from the polytechnics, they will not allow you to go straight to do your Masters degree without requiring that you do a Post-graduate Diploma (PDG). So these are some of the issues we feel would crop up with this merger. I am also afraid that 75 per cent of the current academic and non academic staff in the polytechnic sector - may go to the labour market.

Merger as a way of removing disparity in polytechnic/university.

But there is a way to do and reduce the casualties to zero level. Allow polytechnics to award higher degrees that is all. You would have removed completely this discrimination between HND and BSc, that is all. Like it is done in South Africa , Egypt , United States of America , even the reform in education in the Great Britain was a gradual process. It was not merger. The polytechnics were allowed on their own to start awarding degrees, not merger, not even acquisition, not even consolidation and it took so many years for them to evolve. So it is not these ad-hoc measures that we are adopting today.

Improved funding for education by the government.

It might interest you to know that for the past four years there has been no grant for research in the polytechnics. If there is any government that is desirous to improving the tertiary education quality, it must properly fund education. But this government has refused to fund research, I don't know what the higher institutions exist for? We exist basically to conduct teaching and research. And when this major components are lacking then we are in a serious dilemma .

But there are research grants to be accessed by lecturers.

What we are saying is that it is part of the agreement for government to fund researches in tertiary institutions and if you look at the Act establishing the Education Trust Fund (ETF), even the act itself states that the ASUU and ASUP, the PTA, NUT should be members of the board, but they are completely excluded from that because government does not actually want to fund education especially at the polytechnics level. So it is this consistent discrimination in terms of funding that has brought down and led to decay in infrastructure in the polytechnics.