How govt officials, others ran substandard COEs in Bauchi

Bauchi State currently has 62 accredited and non-accredited COEs awarding NCE.

The state government’s directive which was carried out by the state’s Ministry of Education has also sparked controversy on the prerogative of the government to revoke the licences of the private colleges instead of the National Commission of Colleges of Education (NCCE).

While the argument of the state government is that there is an incessant proliferation of the institutions in the state, the question is, under whose authority and guidance were licences issued?

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Daily Trust Saturday checks revealed that Bauchi State currently has 62 accredited and non-accredited COEs awarding NCE.

Findings further showed that some of these institutions have continued to lure many students, particularly those who do not have the required entrance results to higher institutions, within the state.

This is even as some operate from public schools, others from under trees, in shops and houses and at the end issue certificates under the pretext of affiliation with accredited institutions.

This ugly trend, according to experts, is gradually grooming hundreds of quack teachers across the state and by extension threatening the quality of education.

Daily Trust further reports that the House of Assembly, two weeks ago, raised alarm over the issue of the proliferation of the COEs. The Chairman of the House Committee on Education, Hon Babayo Muhammad, moved a motion calling on the state government to see reason in regulating the proliferation of illegal private NCE awarding institutions in the state so as to provide quality education to the people of the state.

He said the situation had gotten out of hand as presently there were 62 NCE awarding institutions in the state. Four are public institutions owned by the state government, while 58 are private institutions established by businessmen as profit-making ventures, and out of the 58, only 13 are duly registered with NCCE.

According to the lawmaker, the establishment of some of the institutions is illegal and that standards are being disregarded in open deviance and candidates who seek admission in the institutions are exploited because of their ignorance.

He added that some of the institutions were using government structures, operated under trees or in uncompleted structures, had no enough personnel, auditorium, lecture theatres, hostels, libraries, etc, noting that it was a mockery of the entire education system.

Hon Muhammad said, “The continuous existence of illegal higher institutions in Bauchi State will have long time effect on the state’s economy and development. Their existence is a serious problem because of non-compliance to rules and regulations governing the establishment of higher institutions of learning in this country.

“They operate below standard and their operations are not clandestine. To allow them to continue existing is like allowing a time bomb; when it explodes, it will cause serious devastating effect to the state.”

He, therefore, prayed the state government, through the Ministry of Education, to liaise with NCCE and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to come out clearly to stop the unauthorised higher institutions from existing in Bauchi State, and that the government should ban all illegal private higher institutions from using its structures across the state.

The Majority Leader of the house, Hon Tijjani Mohammad Aliyu, said the problem should also be attributed to the attitude of the supervisory and regulatory bodies who were not doing their work.

Another Member, Hon Saleh Muhammad, submitted that the house, while observing the problem, should look at the population of the state and the increasing need of education in the state, saying as time goes by the population is increasing to the level that the available COEs cannot accommodate the applicants that many secondary schools are producing.

A staff of the education ministry told Daily Trust Saturday that a good number of the illegal COEs are owned by government officials and civil servants; appointing stooges to run them.

He said, “Most of the proprietors of the illegal COEs are fronting for those officials and that is why they are giving them cover. Long ago some concerned citizens from Azare forwarded a comprehensive petition over the proliferation of illegal COEs but officials in the ministry put the petition under the carpet until the House of Assembly Committee on Education raised alarm.”

Meanwhile, a senior official of NCCE confirmed to Daily Trust that Bauchi has the highest number of illegal NCE awarding institutions in Nigeria, but faulted the decision of the state government to revoke the licenses of the COEs, saying the act provided that only NCCE had the mandate to issue or revoke the licence of any COE that fell short of standard.

He noted that those which licences were revoked could be among the illegal COEs without NCCE’s approval, adding that usually, the higher institutions were expected to seek approval from the state government through the Ministry of Education before coming to NCCE for operational licence.

He added that, “Once approved by NCCE, and the college is doing the needful, there wouldn’t be need for the state government’s interference.”

A public affairs consultant, Dr Andy Iheme, explained that the state’s Ministry of Education could not plead innocence of what transpired before those colleges took off because they gave them their blessing.

Dr Iheme said, “I am sure Bauchi State’s private COEs went through those procedures to get established. One will expect that if anybody is coming here to establish a private COE, the state Ministry of Education should be involved because you have to seek for land which is under the approval of the governor.”

He further said, “The state government is not in a position to revoke licences because all the state-owned tertiary institutions are supervised by regulatory bodies that accredited them. Bauchi State does not have the kind of power required to revoke licences given by NCCE.

“My problem is that if approval didn’t come from Abuja, who gave the approval in Bauchi for such places to take off? We need to find out because if it happens in education it could happen in other sectors. Some people are operating without the knowledge of the state government and with connivance of certain authorities to perpetrate illegalities.”

Speaking on the fate of affected students, Dr Eheme said the ones who had graduated from the illegal COEs unfortunately were parading fake certificates as, “They are like people who go through a night school, government will not employ them and the private sector too. For those who are already on ground, what is normally done is that once you don’t have accreditation your students are distributed to other institutions that are accredited.”

He, therefore, advised the proprietors of the private COEs to pick up the requirements for accreditation and recognition from NCCE.

Also the registrars of COE, Darazo, Bala Bappah Darazo; and COE, Dass, Jibrin Ahmad Lumana, on a live radio programme monitored by our correspondent, noted that their colleges were registered and accredited with all the relevant government agencies and that they would follow all the due processes to get the state government’s licence, hoping that the decision would be in the best interest of the state.

The Proprietor of Bogoro COE, Laka Ishaku, who also contributed in the programme, expressed shock over the decision of the state government to suspend their licence without visiting to see what was on ground.

He said even though their college was licensed and accredited by NCCE, they were ready to reapply for licence from the state’s Ministry of Education.

Also speaking during the programme, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Sule Adamu Madara, insisted that the decision was aimed at sanitising the activities of private NCE awarding institutions in the state with a view to save the educational sector from total collapse.

He maintained that the state-owned tertiary institutions that offered NCE courses were more than enough to cater for the needs of the state and other neighbouring states, hence the need for the reduction of the substandard colleges.

According to Madara, anyone that needs to continue operating NCE awarding institution in the state must reapply for licence from the ministry and “if they fulfill the requirements, the ministry will allow them to continue their activities in Bauchi State.”

When asked on the fate of the graduates of the illegal COEs, the permanent secretary maintained that their certificates remained valid, but that for the current students, their fate lay on the owners of the institutions.