A bill seeking to eliminate the discrimination between Bachelor's Degree and Higher National Diploma (HND) holders has passed its second reading in the House of Representatives. Speaker Tajudeen Abbas stated that the proposed legislation aims to replace the HND with a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech), enabling polytechnic graduates to compete on equal footing with university graduates. Sponsored by Lagos lawmaker Fuad Laguda, the bill also highlights the significance of technical education. Abbas noted that all polytechnic boards in Nigeria support the abolition of HND in favor of a B.Tech to ensure fair competition with university graduates. “At the same time, they are calling for hybrid supervision where the degree component of the polytechnic education will be handled by the NUC (National Universities Commission) while the national diploma will continue to be handled by the NBTE (National Board for Technical Education). “Because of the degree component of this amendment, they felt that the qualification for being rector should also be upgraded to a Ph.D holder at the minimum since you will now be talking about degree programmes, it is only proper for such kind of establishment to have a Ph.D holder as the head of the institution,” he said. Abbas subjected the bill to a voice vote and the lawmakers approved it to scale second reading.