NBTE bans unaccredited programmes in polytechnics, others

The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has banned Polytechnics as well as Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions from offering unaccredited programmes.

According to NBTE’s Head of Media and Publicity, Fatima Abubakar, the Executive Secretary (ES), Prof. Idris Bugaje, said the directive takes immediate effect.

Bugaje reportedly explained that the restriction became necessary due to the proliferation of ‘unaccredited’ diplomas, “which are not acceptable for career progression or academic advancement.”

He said that the polytechnics regulatory authorities had since banned such diplomas, adding that some institutions still offer them, “sometimes in affiliation with other institutions.”

Findings, the ES stressed, indicate that the polytechnic diploma run by some of the approved institutions were not NBTE-accredited, but mostly for revenue generation.

Lamenting that holders of unaccredited diplomas are always on the horns of a dilemma as they neither secure employment nor progress academically with such qualification he pointed out that the board was always inundated with requests for clarification and evaluation of the certificates by Nigerian and international organisations as well as foreign missions.

The statement, issued in Kaduna, entitled ‘NBTE bans unaccredited programmes’, called on affected institutions to seek the board’s approval to formalise such diplomas by subjecting them to the quality assurance mechanism of the NBTE.