By Daniels Nwokike and Gift Samuel
Nigeria’s Minister of Education,Mallam Adamu Adamu has inaugurated the National Standing Committee (NSC) on Evaluation and Accreditation of Foreign qualifications to curb the rise of unaccredited foreign institutions that have been graduating Nigerian students and issuing them with unapproved degree certificates.
Speaking on Monday at the 33rd NSC meeting in Abuja, the Minister said that the National Standing Committee on Foreign Qualifications is the highest decision making body on the evaluation of foreign qualifications.
Adamu stated that the meeting is intended to be a forum for the exchange of ideas that would help the education sector as progress has been made for the past six years, in the areas of confirmation of accreditation status of foreign institutions, issuance of mobilization letters to Nigerian graduates of foreign institutions intending to participate in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme, authentication of certificates and issuance of No-Objection letters and eligibility letters.
He said that the need to assess the quality of foreign qualifications obtained by Nigerians arose in 1974 when many Nigerians were sponsored to acquire different degrees and diplomas from Eastern Europe which necessitated the constitution of the committee by the Federal Government to determine the Nigerian equivalent for the purpose of further study and employment.
The minister revealed that the process of documentation has been streamlined and collaboration with relevant professional bodies for proper assessment of professional degree qualifications has been intensified as well.
”There has been a liaison with law enforcement agents to check the activities of quacks and fraudsters which have yielded tremendous results” he said.
Earlier in his remarks, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Arc. Sonny Echono said that the committee has numerous tasks ahead of them, one of which requires the committee’s immediate attention, is the need to curb the rise of unaccredited foreign institutions that have been graduating Nigerian students and issuing them with unapproved degree certificates.
Echono stated that the ministry has stopped issuing eligibility letters to students of some private institutions in the republics of Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cameroun etc who have been flouting the rules governing the accreditation of some courses, especially medical sciences, health and engineering courses in their country.
He said that graduates of such courses are no longer permitted to serve in the NYSC pending the accreditation of such courses by the host countries even as he called on the relevant Nigerian professional bodies to cease from registering holders of such qualifications for professional membership and practice in Nigeria.
“The quality of education that Nigerians receive outside the shores of the country should be the major concern of the committee as so many people have indulged in various illegitimate means to obtain degree certificates in and outside the country” he concluded.
