The Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu, has said that the Federal Government has begun the process of eliminating the discrimination against polytechnic graduates in the public service.

He stated this during an interactive session between the ministry officials and the Senate Committee on Education on Tuesday.

According to him, the disparity was affecting staff moral and productivity within the service, noting that the government is concerned about it.

He said, “We are addressing the problem, because when a staff with HND does not earn the same recognition that his counterpart from the university earns, it creates problems.

“Right now, we have removed the barriers. By the time we present our overall blue print you will see how far we have gone.”

Chairman of the committee, Senator Joy Emordi, expressed satisfaction over the development, saying that her office had been inundated with petitions from Nigerians complaining about the adverse effects of the disparity.

But Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, a member of the committee, noted that polytechnics had created more problems by admitting too many students in the business courses while only a few were admitted into engineering.

According to her, the polytechnics have deviated from their initial mandate of focusing on technical courses.

Senator Omar Hambagdar, a former university lecturer, however, disagreed with Obasanjo-Bello, arguing that the initial design of the polytechnic system included both technical and business courses.

He said only polytechnics initially offered business courses and that it was only recently that universities in Nigeria started offering business courses.