National Teachers’ Institute, Kaduna’s Illegal Degrees; NUC Fails To Curb Illegality

Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu

NUC’s failure to stop NTI’s degree certificates before now is an indictment of the Commission and its monitoring functions. Mere issuance of warnings to NTI over its illegal academic activities wasn’t good enough.

The National Universities Commission (NUC) recently declared as illegal all the degrees awarded by the National Teachers’ Institute, Kaduna.

Daily Trust editorial continues:

NUC’s Director of Information and Public Relations Ibrahim Yakassai said National Teachers Institute, Kaduna persistently ignored NUC’s advice to abstain from running degree and Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programmes because it lacked the necessary approval for affiliation with any university. 

NUC’s spokesman said although NTI had previously indicated interest to run those programmes, such did not foreclose the due process of applying and obtaining approval from NUC. He said NUC authorities had an interactive session with NTI’s leadership in 2015 and told the latter the processes involved in obtaining the authorization to run such courses. A degree programme is run by an institution only in affiliation with a recognized university and it is the name of that university that would be on the certificate to be issued to students after graduation.

By its mandate, NUC approves every programme that will be run by an institution in affiliation with any university. CAP E3, Section 25 of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 makes NUC the only government agency responsible for regulating award of degrees in universities and other degree awarding institutions in Nigeria. NUC also has the duty of ensuring quality in all courses through the periodic accreditation of all degree programmes run by Nigerian universities. Human and material resources needed to run any particular undergraduate course that leads to the award of a degree must first be verified by NUC before approval could be given to start the programme. When approved programmes mature for accreditation, NUC is invited to verify the adequacy or otherwise of the human and material resources available to run the courses before they are granted accreditation.

One of the implications of NUC’s disclaimer of NTI’s Bachelor’s degree and PGDE certificates is invalidation of such certificates for any further studies, work or mobilization for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. The “degrees” awarded by NTI include B. Ed; B.A. Ed; B. Sc. Ed and PGDE. It would be recalled that NTI was initially established to run a distance learning programme for primary school teachers who failed or had no Teachers’ Grade II certificate. When the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) became the minimum teaching qualification in Nigeria, NTI’s mandate was expanded not only to run NCE by correspondence in order  to upgrade holders of Teachers’ Grade II certificate to NCE but to also organize refresher courses for serving teachers. Even if the minimum teaching qualification is raised beyond NCE, which is not an issue at this time, NTI has no authority to start degree programmes without NUC’s approval.

The illegal running of degree programmes by NTI which uses hundreds of primary and secondary schools as study centres in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria depicts desperation on its part to aggressively expand its revenue base. Upgrading NTI to a degree awarding institute will amount to duplication since the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) was established to enable workers, including teachers to acquire a Bachelor’s degree by distance learning. Besides, many universities in Nigeria have institutes of education that run degrees specifically in education courses. Most colleges of education in Nigeria, too, run B. Ed. degree programmes that are affiliated to a university.

NUC’s failure to stop NTI’s degree certificates before now is an indictment of the Commission and its monitoring functions. Mere issuance of warnings to NTI over its illegal academic activities wasn’t good enough. Besides seeking the intervention of the police to help enforce the laws, NUC could have sued NTI. This would have prevented the current quagmire and embarrassment occasioned by NTI’s illegal award of degrees. We urge the Federal Ministry of Education to investigate this matter and sanction anyone found guilty. All agencies must be made to operate within the mandate outlined by the law establishing them. NUC should also enlighten Nigerians on the institutions that have its mandate to run degree programmes.