The Nation Newspaper

Tag: accreditation

  • Education College regains accreditation of three programmes

    Federal College of Education (Technical), Omoku, Rivers State, has regained full accreditation status of its three degree programmes. They include:  Agricultural Education, Home Economics Education and Industrial Technical Education. The said programmes are run in affiliation with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN).

    The Provost of the college Dr Emmanuel Ikenyiri, broke the news while addressing the 31st NCE/ and eight Bs.C joint matriculation held at the institution’s premises.

    Ikenyiri recalled how the aforementioned programmes were denied accreditation by the National Universities Commission (NUC) since 2016, owing to dearth of electricity at the permanent site, otherwise called Campus II of the college which houses the three programmes.

    Ikenyiri who was presiding over his first matriculation since he became Provost, is nonetheless happy that electricity is now restored at the CAMPUS which has been in the dark since 2015, because of the damage of many of the campus facilities by vandals.

    He also said the internal roads in the two campuses which were once death traps have all been rehabilitated and new ones constructed courtesy of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

    He said efforts are on to fence the entire permanent to avoid encroachment by land grabbers. Most importantly, Ikenyiri said the move is to forestall activities of herdsmen that have turned the campus into a grazing land by destroying the farmland therein.

    Come next academic session, Ikenyiri said more degree programmes would be introduced in order to boost enrolment in the degree programme.

    Ikenyiri who regretted that the institution held her last convocation 10 year ago, announced to the delight of the students that a convocation would hold this year for those that have graduated at the NCE and Degree levels from 2011 to 2019.

  • Credit, discredit and accreditation

    An oriental wisdom suggests that while the dead lie in state, the living, if need be, would be made to lie in a state. This, Hardball would translate to mean that the same delicate art of managing a cadaver could be applied in managing walking body. Or put differently again, just because a body is up and about does not mean that it is in a proper state of mind; it may well be lying in state – vertically!

    Now why is Hardball in a morbid mode in this season of goodwill? Well, a story broke over the weekend that medical students of the University of Abuja had to spend 12 years to graduate instead of six years! And it is not because they are particularly dull-heads that needed a minimum of two years to achieve an academic year.

    No! It was actually for no fault of the students who were actually rendered prostrate by the state. It just happens that the Federal Government that owns the institution through the instrumentality of the Federal Ministry of Education must have been in a certain awkward state while this aberration persisted. Or if you prefer, government and the university administration may have been lying in state (or lying about its state) for 12 years while all this lasted.

    This is exactly Hardball’s sentiments which also inform this hoary morbidity in a time of Yuletide. And there is no credit in the explanation that the institution was broiled in accreditation matters. Again that discredits both government and institution in equal measure.

    Why would a federal tertiary institution for that matter lack the necessary prerequisite for the statutory accreditation of its courses? And why would a university admit students into departments and faculties not properly accredited by the requisite accrediting authorities? Why would government and school management watch students suffer for so long; wasting time and resources for twelve years; inflicting emotional and psychological trauma on helpless students?

    This horrifically horizontal state of affairs is not peculiar to UniAbuja; many so- called federal tertiary institutions have become a hollow shell burdened by their old glory. University of Ife for instance, a once glorious citadel has its Law and Medicine programmes in a shambles right now.

    If gold rusts! It is a known fact that most state-owned universities and technical schools are just destinations for academic dereliction. For many, they are just going through the motion of studying as a good number of their courses are without accreditation at any given time.

    What really is the duty of the National Universities Commission and the Federal Ministry of Education? They are a most discredited bunch if federal institutions of learning are suffering accreditation hiccups. Are they lying in state?

     

  • UNIDO, EU: Nigeria’s accreditation process still below standard

    United Nations Industrial Development( UNIDO ) and the European Union ( EU) have tasked the Nigerian government and other stakeholders on the need to give priority attention to developing a  stronger framework for a more credible accreditation process in its implementation of national quality Infrastructure projects.
    The global organizations, while expressing the concern during this year’s World Accreditation Day in Abuja said that though, the Nigerian National Accreditation Service ( NiNAS) was gaining some global recognition, the country’s accreditation process was still below standard.
    They said  that  more efforts were required to ensure total compliance to global standards in all infrastructure and service chains in the country.
    UNIDO Representative to ECOWAS and Regional Director in Nigeria, Jean Bakole stated that standard accreditation system helps in delivering  a safer world.
    This, he noted was critical because to a great extent it enhances consumers confidence in safety, security, and authenticity of food and water they consume.
    He added ” this confidence is gained through application of common food safety management systems, supported by credible testing and inspection regimes.Many organizations in Nigeria check compliance with food and water safety and cleanliness standards through testing, calibration, inspection services, and certification services.
    ” Accreditation Service from NiNAS is the complementary tool that assures that these organizations are credible and reliable. NiNAS Accreditation service assesses the competence of bodies to determine compliance with standards. It also helps to promote best industry practices, compliments government agencies to individually monitor conformity assessment organizations, and strengthen consumer confidence in products and services”.
    On her part, the European Union ( EU) Representative, Cannata Nadia, said the European Union was funding the National Quality Infrastructure Programme in Nigeria to underscore the importance of having standard accreditation that will position the country to contribute effectively to delivering a safer world.
    She explained that ” Quality infrastructure is about having each institution play its role in the best possible way within an agreed framework. This is a condition sine qua non which is at the core of the National Quality Infrastructure Programme, funded by the EU and implemented by UNIDO.”
    She insisted that more has to be done in strengthening institutional framework in Nigeria for the purpose of achieving quality infrastructure accreditation.
    ” Over the past four years, a lot of work has been put to move ahead with each of the elements of the quality infrastructure in Nigeria. I would like to quickly go through some of the key words associated to the theme of this year celebration: “Delivering a Safer World”: More has to be done to “protect the consumers”

  • Screening, accreditation begins for Okpekpe race

    FINAL registration of athletes for Saturday’s sixth IAAF silver label Okpekpe international 10km road race begins today in Auchi in Edo state.

    The registration, according to Zack Amodu, the race’s director of organisation entails screening and accreditation of all athletes who have completed the registration format on any of the platforms provided by the organisers.

    “The accreditation of athletes and officials will commence on Thursday at the Yak Hotel Auchi, and it will end midday on Friday. All registered athletes will be screened and accredited for the historic race which will be live on television from seven in the morning with the actual race scheduled to start at 8 am.’

    According to Amodu, the athletes will be provided with their bib numbers as a sign of accreditation for the race and the registration and accreditation point is Yak hotel, which is located along Auchi-Benin road in Auchi.

    Amodu also disclosed that all the invited foreign elite athletes would arrive today and they include 2016 winners Simon Cheprot of Kenya and Polline Nwajiku who won the men and women’s race respectively in 2016.

    ‘We are also expecting Diana Kipyogei of Kenya who won the Adana Half Marathon in Turkey in January and the Guadalajara Half Marathon in February. Early last month she placed 3rd in the Istanbul Half Marathon, running a new 1:07:55 personal best. We also expect Ethiopia’s Jima Bekele Reta to arrive Lagos this afternoon.

    Reta holds the unofficial second fastest time over the distance in history.’

    Also set to jet in is Sandrafelis Chebet Tuei of Kenya, the fastest woman over the women’s 10km so far this year.

    ‘We are expecting a very explosive race and a new course record for both the men and women race as we have a very quality elite field,’ said Amodu.

    Meanwhile, all eyes are focused on the Okpekpe race as the 46th IAAF label road race to be held this year following the staging of the IAAF Gold Label Volkswagen Prague Marathon in Praha, Czech Republic last Sunday.

    Saturday’s Okpekpe race is the only IAAF silver label 10km road race for the first half of 2018 and will be live on Satellite (Supersports) and Terrestrial (Africa Independent Television, AIT) television.

    It is organised by Pamodzi Sports Marketing, leaders in sports marketing and hospitality business in Nigeria. It is the first and only road race in Nigeria that has been granted full membership of Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) and recognised as one of the prestigious road races in the world and the only race with an IAAF silver label status in West Africa.

  • EKSU alumni hail accreditation

    The Ekiti State University (EKSU) Alumni Association has hailed the accreditation of the 38 programmes being run by the institution.

    Its National President Asiwaju Oludotun Adetunberu, said the feat was a confirmation of EKSU’s status as a university of choice in Nigeria.

    Adetunberu in a statement  commended the state government and the university management for  the successful accreditation.

    The EKSU Alumni chief described the feat as an unprecedented in the history of the university.

    He expressed confidence that the feat would further enhance the rating of the university by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

    He also thanked members of the Governing Council for the maturity with which they handled the national industrial crisis by the non-academic staff which dragged for seven months.

    Adetunberu, who appreciated the unions for their maturity, expressed joy that the dispute  had been amicably resolved.

  • Accreditation, voting ‘ll be simultaneous, says LASIEC

    Accreditation and voting will be done simultaneously between 9a.m and 3p.m during Saturday’s by-elections in two wards in Oshodi-Isolo and Agege Local Governments, Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC)  said yesterday.

    The results, LASIEC reiterated,   would be announced at the collation centres.

    LASIEC Chairman Justice Ayotunde Phillips (retd) made this known at a training programme for the ad-hoc personnel engaged for the elections.

    The training, she said, was to familiarise them with their roles for during the elections.

    Represented by an Electoral Commissioner, Chief Toyin Ibrahim-Famakinwa, Justice Phillips said the commission was conscious of the need to protect its image,  asking the ad-hoc personnel must to abide by the rules  guiding elections.

    LASIEC Permanent Secretary (PS) Mr Sesan  Ogundeko said the training  “cannot be over-emphasised”.

    Describing the electorate and other stakeholders as customers who must be treated as kings, Ogundeko enjoined the ad-hoc personnel to be  prepared to meet the people’s expectation through strict adherence to due process and the rule of law.

    He urged them to be impartial and transparent in the discharge of their responsibilities.

    The P S  said all the materials required for the elections were ready, awaiting deployment to where they would be utilised.

  • Kwara Assembly seeks accreditation of courses

    The Kwara State House of Assembly has condemned the admission of students into non-accredited courses in some state-owned tertiary institutions.

    The lawmakers mandated the Deputy Speaker, Mathew Okedare, and members of the Committee on Education and Human Capital Development, to meet with Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed to release money towards the accreditation of some courses in the affected tertiary institutions.

    The motion on accreditation and re-accreditation of courses in state-owned tertiary institutions was sponsored by Share Jimoh Akanni AbdulRahman (Oke-Ode).

  • NABG seeks private lab accreditation

    The President, Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG), Alhaji Sani Dangote, has urged the government  to  encourage accreditation of private  laboratories  to allow Nigeria to export tested foods .

    He said Nigeria has a limited number of food laboratories.

    Addressing a press conference in Lagos, Dangote said the accreditation  became necessary in view of the fact that the few ones established by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) could not cover the volume of food  produced  across the country.

    He said accreditation of other food testing facilities would  assist the industry to certify foods for sale in the local and export markets.

    He said the development of the   National Quality Infrastructure was important and the accreditation of more  food testing labs vital to the economy.

    He pointed out that with such accreditation, goods tested for export at private labs will not be withheld in the ports of other countries to be rechecked. Usually, when goods are held in the ports of the importing country, there is a decrease in the confidence of potential buyers and time is wasted.

    He noted that with less process of exporting foods, the country can look forward to earning more foreign exchange.

    According to the industrialist if standards are maintained and adhered to, fake and sub-standard products would definitely go out of circulation and would pave way for the nation’s agro-allied and local industries to thrive, arguing that SON owed it a duty to facilitate the development and accreditation of private laboratories across the country for the use of small and medium scale enterprises.

    According to him, the benefits of having such internationally accredited labs are numerous and cannot be ignored if Nigeria must take its pride of place in the global market. For one, local products will  be standardised and certified, thereby reducing substantially the preponderance of fake and substandard goods. Besides, access to certification will also drive down costs based on the fact that Nigerian officials will no longer need to travel abroad to get samples of products tested.

    The reduction in the cost and, indeed, the time taken for certification will be reflected in the economy through a reduction in the prices of goods and services. Cost of output will drastically reduce for the manufacturers through the SON’s intervention.

    He said the private sector has the capacity to promote growth in agriculture with the Federal Government create the enabling environment.

  • Credit, discredit and accreditation

    An oriental wisdom suggests that while the dead lie in state, the living, if need be, would be made to lie in a state. This, Hardball would translate to mean that the same delicate art of managing a cadaver could be applied in managing walking body. Or put differently again, just because a body is up and about does not mean that it is in a proper state of mind; it may well be lying in state – vertically!

    Now why is Hardball in a morbid mode in this season of goodwill? Well, a story broke over the weekend that medical students of the University of Abuja had to spend 12 years to graduate instead of six years! And it is not because they are particularly dull-heads that needed a minimum of two years to achieve an academic year.

    No! It was actually for no fault of the students who were actually rendered prostrate by the state. It just happens that the Federal Government that owns the institution through the instrumentality of the Federal Ministry of Education must have been in a certain awkward state while this aberration persisted. Or if you prefer, government and the university administration may have been lying in state (or lying about its state) for 12 years while all this lasted.

    This is exactly Hardball’s sentiments which also inform this hoary morbidity in a time of Yuletide. And there is no credit in the explanation that the institution was broiled in accreditation matters. Again that discredits both government and institution in equal measure.

    Why would a federal tertiary institution for that matter lack the necessary prerequisite for the statutory accreditation of its courses? And why would a university admit students into departments and faculties not properly accredited by the requisite accrediting authorities? Why would government and school management watch students suffer for so long; wasting time and resources for twelve years; inflicting emotional and psychological trauma on helpless students?

    This horrifically horizontal state of affairs is not peculiar to UniAbuja; many so- called federal tertiary institutions have become a hollow shell burdened by their old glory. University of Ife for instance, a once glorious citadel has its Law and Medicine programmes in a shambles right now.

    If gold rusts! It is a known fact that most state-owned universities and technical schools are just destinations for academic dereliction. For many, they are just going through the motion of studying as a good number of their courses are without accreditation at any given time.

    What really is the duty of the National Universities Commission and the Federal Ministry of Education? They are a most discredited bunch if federal institutions of learning are suffering accreditation hiccups. Are they lying in state?

  • Low turnout during accreditation

    There was low turnout of voters in several polling units in Ogbaro Local Government Area, Anambra North Senatorial District.

    Voters appear to be in no hurry to come out in several units.

    However, in Ward 406 (Ochuche/Ogbakuba/Amiyi/Umuzu), accreditation and voting began at after 9am rather than 8am.

    The Presiding Officer, Okoli Nzube, addressed about 10 voters on queue in Unit 014 at about 9.10am.

    He informed them that voting and accreditation would be simultaneous. He urged them to be orderly.

    There are 548 registered voters in the unit in Central School, Ochuche Omuodu, but only less than 15 were on queue.

    The number is less in Unit 01 in the same ward, where less than 10 persons were on queue as at the time of filing this report.

    Voting materials arrived on time in all the units visited.

    Electoral officers were ready with the materials as at 8am at Units 01 and 018, Ward 05 (Iyiona/Ochekpe/Ohita 1 Registration Area) located at the Odekpe II Central School.

    However, there were no voters on queue by 8.30am.

    Voters were seen checking their names on lists posted on walls in the unit.

    There are 944 voters in Unit 018, while there are 1,529 in Unit 01.

    No incidents have been reported in Ogbaro. Soldiers were seen on major roads on stop and search duties.

    At the polling units, policemen and officers of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) provide security.