The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) is against the directive by the Ministry of Education, instructing the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to stop degree programmes currently being run by some polytechnics in affiliation with Nigerian universities.
President of ASUP, Comrade Anderson Ezeibe, in a statement said the union will not be deterred “but more energized in our demand for liberation from the plot to completely destroy the Nigerian Polytechnic system through such deleterious policies.
“The directive and the outcome of the so-called meeting in the Federal Ministry of Education is the product of indolent thought processes by persons who are more interested in unnecessary gate-keeping, policy and administrative inertia as well as conservative dispositions as against the new order of liberal thinking and dynamism which is associated with tertiary education globally.
“It is even funnier when such a directive is yet to be seen for Universities offering diploma programs and other sub degree certifications.
“This is 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
“The conservative disposition and indolence as seen in undue regimentation in the name of supervision and regulation of tertiary education in Nigeria has seen the nation completely derail in providing functional education to its teeming youthful population.”