The Federal Government has declared war on the practice of tertiary institutions borrowing lecturers, equipment, laboratories and other facilities to deceive accreditation teams, warning that henceforth, institutions must be assessed on resources they genuinely own and can sustainably provide to students.

Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the government was moving to overhaul the accreditation system for universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to prevent institutions from creating a “temporary picture” of their capacity whenever accreditation teams visit.

Alausa spoke in Abuja at the inauguration of the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening the Accreditation and Quality Assurance System for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria. The panel is chaired by the immediate past Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ish-aq Oloyede.

He said accreditation was supposed to provide an accurate picture of an institution’s ability to deliver quality education, but expressed concern that some institutions temporarily assemble personnel and facilities solely to satisfy accreditation requirements.

“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 we see in a majority of instances,” the minister said.

He said the government would tackle the temporary movement of academic and non-academic personnel to institutions ahead of accreditation visits.

“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 said the government would no longer be satisfied with what institutions merely present to accreditation teams, insisting that regulators must be able to verify that the resources actually exist and remain available after the accreditation exercise.

“When an accreditation team visits an institution, what it sees and verifies should represent the actual and sustainable capacity of that institution, not an arrangement assembled for the accreditation exercise,” he said.

To achieve this, the minister said the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) would be required to strengthen mechanisms for verifying the authenticity and continuous availability of staff, facilities and equipment.

The government also plans to deploy technology to track institutional resources.

According to Alausa, critical equipment presented for accreditation should be digitally identified and linked to a specific institution and physical location.

Such equipment, he said, should have a unique digital record indicating its location, status and other relevant information.

The minister also announced plans for tighter verification of personnel presented by institutions during accreditation.

He said the government would develop a digital identity-management and staff-verification framework to establish that individuals presented as academic and non-academic staff are genuinely associated with the institutions claiming them.

The framework, he said, would explore the use of the National Identification Number (NIN), Bank Verification Number (BVN) infrastructure and other secure technologies.

“The objective is straightforward: one individual, one verifiable identity and an accurately declared institutional affiliation,” Alausa said.

He added that the system should be capable of detecting instances where the same person is improperly presented as full-time personnel in multiple institutions.

The minister said the reforms would ultimately move accreditation from an occasional inspection exercise to continuous quality assurance, so that institutions would be required to maintain prescribed standards throughout the year.

“An institution should not meet prescribed standards only when the NUC, NBTE or NCCE accreditation team is expected. It should meet those standards every day,” he said.

Alausa charged the ministerial committee to develop a credible, transparent and technology-driven accreditation framework based on independently verifiable evidence.