New law on Tertiary Institutions adopted

The Tertiary Institutions (Establishment and Accreditation) Regulations Legislative Instrument, 1700, 2002 was on Friday adopted and passed into law by Parliament.

The Instrument seeks among other things to provide for the regulation of application for grant of accreditation, the issuance, variation or revocation of certificate of accreditation and the inspection and evaluation of performance and supervision of both private and public tertiary educational institutions.

Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation, in moving the Motion said that the Committee observed that the L.I. 1700 confers full autonomy on accredited institutions without any obligation, interference or instructions from any person or body in the administration of their academic affairs.

He said the regulations provide amongst other things for applicants to bear the full cost of inspection and evaluation of their facilities prior to granting of Certificate of Accreditation by the Board.

Dr Kunbuor said the Committee recommended that the National Accreditation Board (NAB) should be encouraged to put in place a scheme to motivate tertiary education service providers to complement Government's efforts in providing increased access to tertiary education.

It further recommended that the stakeholders, particularly the NAB in conjunction with the Ministry of Education should ensure that training courses offered by tertiary institutions were relevant to the manpower needs of the country.

The Committee also recommended that the NAB together with the Ministry of Education put in place measures to motivate and encourage private tertiary educational institutions to extend their services to other regions in view of the seemingly over concentration of tertiary institutions in Accra.

Mr Kosi Kedem, NDC-Hohoe South, said the instrument was long overdue and expressed his happiness that it had finally been laid before Parliament, adding that the functions of the NAB indicated that it was the backbone of tertiary education. He said the L.I. was to ensure that the institutes did not operate illegally, they did not exploit the situation and that genuine certificates would be awarded to qualified students.

Mr Kedem said the L.I. was necessary and important because the work of the NAB was hampered because they did not have the requisite capacity to do its work effectively and had to depend on outside expertise to help track courses being run especially at private institutions.

He suggested that the Board should endeavour to ensure that basic facilities were available before accreditation was awarded to institutions while illegal institutes that organised dubious courses without accreditation should be made to regularise them.

Alhaji Malik Al-hassan Yakubu, NPP-Yendi, said there was the need for training courses to be made relevant. and to reflect the course content at the tertiary institutions and called on the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs to play a watchdog role to ensure academic excellence.

He said efforts should be made to encourage private institutions to extend their services to other regions to give equal opportunities to especially the deprived regions and districts for them to raise their educational standards. Mr Mumuni Abudu Seidu, NDC-Wa Central, said the NAB should be well resourced if the country wanted to raise the standard of education.

Mr Victor Gbeho, Ind. Anlo, said the L.I. was not only to license private tertiary institutions but was aimed at strengthening higher academic standards in the country. He said since the Board was a regulatory one the government should rather bear the cost of accreditation instead of the private institutes or else the door would be opened to corruption at the secretariat of the Board.