4 new private colleges get operational certificates
The Federal Government has granted provisional approval to four (4) new private Colleges of Education to commence operation as part of efforts to increase access to teacher education in Nigeria.
The Executive Secretary, National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), Professor Monday Joshua, who made this known in Abuja, while presenting accreditation certificates to some successful Colleges of Education, said all the newly approved colleges met minimum standards and requirements set by the Commission.
He listed the Colleges as 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.
He also disclosed that the ongoing programmes accreditation of Colleges of Education in the country was on course, adding that eleven (11) Colleges have so far scaled the Commission’s accreditation hurdle and were accordingly issued with Accreditation Certificates.
He recalled 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.
Joshua, who noted that there was no way the quality of teachers produced by the Colleges could be improved without strict regulatory oversight, added that programmes and institutional accreditation were a core mandate of the Commission as part of quality assurance.
He, however, disclosed that out of the 12 Colleges of Education visited for the accreditation so far, one (1) of the institutions has been closed down by the Commission for having obtained Denied Accreditation in nine (9) programmes run by the College.
The NCCE boss further 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 have offered.
He said based on this dismal report by the Accreditation Panel to the College, the management of the Commission had to closed down the institution while arrangement was made to transfer the students to other Colleges.
Meanwhile, a total of 64, 432 backlog of Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) Certificates have been released to students who graduated long time from some of the Colleges but were unable to get their Certificates, a statement from the regulatory agency stated.
