Feature Article of Friday, 17 July 2015
Columnist: Boateng, Emmanuel Agyemfra
Opinion
Some where last week,the National Accreditation Board,released a list of53 unaccredited Tertiary institutions in Ghana and it raised many questions among students and some concerned Ghanaians in general.This is not the first time the NAB is publishing such lists but it seems Ghanaians always receive their lists without questioning them how and when they saw these institutions.
Where was the Accreditation Board when these 53 schools were being set up?Some of these Schools have been in existence for decades without we knowing they were unaccredited untill this so called list came out last week.Students who are currently in the schools should as a matter of urgency sue their school authorities and NAB in addition for waste of resources and time!
So,my question again,who then certify these schools to write examinations,meaning their certificates are not also valid,The NAB and its Executive Director should be summoned to answer some of these questions in Parliament!The National Accreditation Board should be scrapped off if they cannot supervise the authenticity of schools in our country.
Officers of the NAB are acting like Metro or Municipal security guards,who instead of directing traffic in town,will rather go hide behind containers and stores waiting for defaulting drivers to commit and then jump out as pregnant kangaroos to arrest them,instead of prompting these schools when they were about establishing to come for the required certification,you sit idle for them to operate for years and now you say what?
Our public Tertiary institutions can’t absorb all qualified students,so the need for private institutions which help train young ones just as the Public schools will do.These Private schools are doing us more good than harm and the government should support them rather than trying to pull them down each and every blesseed day.This “pull him down syndrome”should stop.
National Accreditation Board should be boldly told in the face they are being hypocrites! acting like Town and Country planning Officers who will wait for a building in an anuthorized location to reach its roofing stage and then run to write boldly in red paint”STOP WORK”.Some of us can’t sit and allow the Executive Director of NAB and his officials to toy with the lives of innocent young Students who want to better their lives through education!
I didnt get money to pay bribe for a public institution or wasnt lucky to make someone’s protocol list,i hustle through life to make some money for a Private school and a certain National Accreditation Board comes to tell me my certificate isnt valid and my school isnt accredited,after all these years!
About two two years ago,some final year students of the Methodist University sued their school after this same NAB waited for them to be admitted with grades which per the NAB didn’t qualify them.The students won and the school was orderd by the Court to register all the students for WAEC’s NOV/DEC exams and after, readmit them.This is some of the inconveniences our so called National Accreditation Board can cause.
I’m not in any way supporting unaccredited institutions,but the NAB should always see to it that they don’t allow these institutions to operate even before they start admitting students.
The Ministry of Education and the Minister incharge of Public Private Partnership,should help these private schools ,supporting them with all the necessary cooperation they will need to make education in the country move on successfully.
There is a saying that,”theres no smoke without fire”yes,none of these institutions will operate without the knowledge of an officer or a department in the NAB!
The National Accredutation Board and its officers should wake up and work accordingly per the ACT of Parliament that set it up wants it to work.
Contact the writer on 0508609109/0249542342