The Federal Government has commenced moves to overhaul the accreditation system for tertiary institutions in Nigeria, with the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, warning institutions against presenting borrowed staff, equipment and facilities during accreditation exercises.
Alausa said the government plans to transform accreditation from a periodic exercise into a continuous, digital and data-driven quality assurance system capable of verifying the actual capacity of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
The minister spoke on Wednesday during the inauguration of the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening Accreditation and Quality Assurance Systems for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.
He said the existing accreditation framework must be strengthened to make it “more transparent, efficient, evidence-based and difficult to manipulate”.
According to him, accreditation exercises should provide an accurate picture of an institution’s ability to deliver quality education rather than a temporary representation created solely to satisfy an assessment team.
“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.
He said the government would address the practice of temporarily moving or borrowing academic and non-academic personnel for 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 stressed that everything presented to an accreditation team must reflect the “actual and sustainable capacity” of the institution.
To achieve this, he said the government would deploy technology to strengthen the verification of infrastructure, equipment and personnel through tools including geospatial mapping, geotagging and digital identification.
“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 called for a comprehensive digital identity management and staff verification framework that would enable regulators to establish the identity, physical presence and institutional affiliation of personnel presented by institutions.
He said the system should leverage national identity infrastructure and interoperable government databases while complying with data protection laws.
The minister also proposed collaboration with the National Identity Management Commission to use the National Identification Number, alongside BVN infrastructure and other secure technologies, to establish the principle of “one individual, one verifiable identity and an accurately declared institutional affiliation”.
According to him, the system should be capable of detecting cases where an individual is improperly presented as full-time staff by more than one institution.
Alausa said the proposed reforms were necessary because the current accreditation model largely operates as a periodic exercise conducted every three to five years.
He said moving towards continuous monitoring would enable regulators to have a more accurate and up-to-date understanding of the quality and capacity of tertiary institutions across the country.
