FG Awards Operational Certificates To Four Colleges

The federal government has granted provisional approval to four new private colleges of education to commence operation.

The colleges are Oswald Waller College of Education, Shendam, Plateau State; Pan African College of Education, Offa, Kwara State; Diamond College of Education, Aba, Abia State and Bilyaminu College of Education, Dass, Bauchi State.

Speaking while presenting accreditation certificates to the successful colleges of education, the executive secretary, National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), Prof Monday Joshua, said all the newly approved colleges met minimum standards and requirements set by the commission.

Joshua stated that the ongoing programme of accreditation of colleges of education in the country was on course, adding that 11 colleges have so far scaled the commission’s accreditation hurdle and were accordingly issued with accreditation certificates.

He recollected that when he assumed office, one year ago, as executive secretary of NCCE, one of the greatest challenges in the system was that a lot of programmes in the NCE-awarding institutions were unaccredited for about a decade.

He further noted that there was no way the quality of teachers produced by the colleges could be improved with strict regulatory oversight, adding that programmes and institutional accreditation were a core mandate of the commission as part of quality assurance.

However, he revealed that out of the 12 colleges of education visited for the accreditation so far, one of the institutions has been closed down by the commission for having obtained Denied Accreditation in nine  programmes run by the college.

He explained that the affected college was running 10 programmes and unfortunately, only one of the programmes obtained Interim Accreditation, saying the institution lacked basic teaching and learning infrastructure as well as inadequate qualified teachers to teach the programmes it claimed to offer.