Don’t pressurise us to give accreditation — NAB
The Executive Secretary of the National Accreditation Board (NAB), Mr Kwame Dattey, has bemoaned the pressure it receives from political authorities to give accreditation to unqualified institutions.
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He said over the past years, private tertiary schools had resorted to using external influences, particularly political authorities, to get accreditation from NAB instead of going through the normal process.
“This negative behaviour, if allowed to persist, would cripple the education sector at the tertiary level,” Mr Dattey said in an interview with the Daily Graphic.
Backing his claims with examples, he mentioned a nursing training college, a school at Sefwi Asafo in the Western Region, which disregarded all the procedures of filing for accreditation from NAB and went to seek help from the Western Regional Minister.
“This is not the first time we are seeing this. This kind of attitude should never be tolerated because it gives other schools the courage to follow suit”, Mr Dattey said.
He noted that if applicants disregarded procedures and used political authorities to have their way, the whole educational system would eventually go down.
Students warned
Mr Dattey said some schools had been given accreditation to run certain courses but ended up adding other courses NAB had not approved.
“It would amaze you to know that some popular tertiary institutions are running courses NAB has not accredited them to do,” he added.
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Mr Dattey observed that most students failed to find out the accreditation status of the institutions they intended to the apply to and, therefore, became victims later.
“We have constantly told students to just pick a phone and call NAB or come to office to find out the accreditation status of a school before applying,” he said.
Unfortunately, the NAB does not have the authority to sanction and mostly report those schools to the Ministry of Education, he said.
2015 Agenda
According to him, NAB would from this month, publish the names of all tertiary schools accredited, adding that, “We would also add the programmes they have been given the green light to run”.
Mr Dattey said the institution would also meet with all the tertiary schools to dialogue with them and find possible ways of enhancing the standard of education delivered at the tertiary level.
“We are also in the process of putting together a National Qualification Framework that would enable students and employers to know the value of their certificate,” he added.