The Federal Government has clarified that the partial removal of dichotomy between the Higher National Diploma (HND) and Bachelor’s of Science (B.Sc) degree by the National Council on Establishment.
Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, speaking on Thursday in Abuja, noted that the resolution of the Council was that an HND holder could now enter into public service on Grade Level 08, the same entrance level for B.Sc holder.
She, however, explained that the HND graduate cannot rise above level 14 except such a person acquires an additional degree for his or her conversion to officer cadre that terminates at Grade Level 17.
The Head of Service made the clarification while briefing newsmen on some of the achievements of her office under the Change Agenda 2015-2018.
She said: “This issue of HND/B.Sc dichotomy came up after the last National Council on Establishment and I think a lot of people are still confused about the policy. What was approved by the Council was that henceforth the HND holder can enter at the same level with B. Sc, which is level 08.
“But the issue of where they stop still remains that they will terminate at Grade level 14 unless they are able to acquire additional relevant degree that can now convert them to officer cadre,” she said.
Oyo-Ita, also discussed that her Office has settled out of court the outstanding promotion examination for Deputy Director, Administration, involving 97 officers, which has been pending for the last three years.
She said the promotion examination to the post of Director, Administration, was subsequently held in collaboration with the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) at the Public Service Institute of Nigeria on 18th January 2018.
She noted that in the areas of promotion and conversion of pool officers between 2016 and 2018, about 10,735 officers were promoted, 872 converted while over 4525 officers are awaiting the results of 2018 promotion exercise.
She said in line with the commitment of President Muhammadu to reposition the Federal Civil Service, Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP) 2017-2020 was developed by her office and has since been approved by the Federal Executive Council in 2017.
She said the implementation of the strategy has recorded laudable achievements, especially in the areas of capacity building, automation of processes, culture and attitudinal change as well as public-private-partnership, which were the major challenges confronting the Service.
Head of Service noted that while a total of 48, 210 staff have benefited from various training programmes and workshops between 2015 and 2018, arrangements have been concluded for with the Management Development Institutes (MDIs) to jointly deliver Structured Mandatory Assessment-based Training Programme (SMART-P), Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme (LEAD-P) and Induction Training under the FCSSIP 2017-2020.
She disclosed that SMART-P training for the first batch of 1,500 officers would commence in March 2019 while the capacity fan gap assessment of Civil Servants has commenced with an online survey across the Service.
