The Federal Government is taking steps to reform the accreditation process for tertiary institutions across the country, as the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, cautioned schools against using borrowed personnel, equipment or facilities to meet accreditation requirements.
Alausa said the government plans to move accreditation away from being an occasional exercise to a continuous, digital and data-based quality assurance process that would accurately determine the real capacity of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
The minister made this known on Wednesday at the inauguration of the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening Accreditation and Quality Assurance Systems for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.
He explained that the current framework needed to be improved to make it “more transparent, efficient, evidence-based and difficult to manipulate,” noting that accreditation must reflect the genuine ability of institutions to provide quality education.
According to him, tertiary institutions should no longer be permitted to create a temporary appearance of compliance simply because an accreditation team is visiting.
“An institution should not be able to prepare a temporary picture of itself simply for the purpose of an accreditation visit. Sadly, this is what persists in the majority of instances,” Alausa said.
The minister said the government would also tackle the practice of temporarily transferring or presenting academic and non-academic staff during accreditation exercises before returning them to their original institutions.
“We must similarly address the temporary movement, borrowing or presentation of equipment, laboratory facilities, workshop resources, library materials and other infrastructure solely for accreditation purposes,” he said.
Alausa maintained that every facility, staff member and resource inspected by an accreditation team must demonstrate the “actual and sustainable capacity” of the institution.
He disclosed that technology would be deployed to improve the verification of infrastructure, equipment and personnel, through tools such as geospatial mapping, geotagging and digital identification systems.
“Critical equipment presented for accreditation should be capable of being digitally identified and linked to a specific institution and physical location.
“Where appropriate, such equipment should have a unique digital record showing its location, status and other relevant information,” the minister said.
On staffing, Alausa advocated for a comprehensive digital identity and personnel verification system that would enable regulators to confirm the identity, physical presence and institutional affiliation of staff presented by tertiary institutions.
He said the proposed framework should make use of national identity systems and interconnected government databases, while complying with existing data protection regulations.
The minister also called for collaboration with the National Identity Management Commission to utilise the National Identification Number, BVN infrastructure and other secure technologies to establish the principle of “one individual, one verifiable identity and an accurately declared institutional affiliation.”
He added that the system should be designed to identify cases where a person is wrongly presented as full-time staff by more than one institution.
Alausa explained that the reforms had become necessary because accreditation is currently conducted largely as a periodic exercise, usually every three to five years.
“A longer-term objective should be to move from accreditation as an event to accreditation as a continuous quality assurance process,” he said.
He stressed that tertiary institutions should consistently maintain the required standards throughout the year instead of making temporary adjustments whenever an accreditation team is scheduled to visit.
