The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP,has insisted that Nigerian Polytechnics are empowered by extant laws to offer degree programmes provided they have the requisite competences.
President of ASUP, Comrade Anderson Ezeibe in a statement Thursday faulted the alleged directive from the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, banning Nigerian Polytechnics from awarding degrees.
According to him, “Our Union will not be deterred by this directive. Rather we are going to get more energized in our demand for liberation from the plot to completely destroy the Nigerian Polytechnic System through such deleterious policies.
“Our policy makers should also be liberated from the captivity of conservative and indolent thought processes into an era of a vibrant tertiary education system marked by intellectual adventure and other requisites needed to make us globally competitive and nationally relevant.”
He explained that the Federal Polytechnics Act (2019) amendment provides the legal framework for the Polytechnics to award degrees provided such Polytechnics have the requisite competence in terms of curricula, manpower and infrastructure to award degrees.
Comrade Ezeibe in the statement titled: “Re-ban on Nigerian Polytechnics from awarding degrees and the indolence of Nigerian Education Planners and Administration,” described the alleged ban as an extension of the discrimination against Nigerian Polytechnics whose foundation was laid and is still nourished by policies of the Nigerian government as seen in the infamous HND/ Degree dichotomy.
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