Education
Accreditation, Our Key Challenge – CHST’s Provost
Iam an insider: I was a
student here, grew through the rank and file, became a lecturer, held different positions, sometimes as Head of Department (HOD), then Director in the school, and finally, now, the Acting Provost.
“So, I am part and parcel of this college. I know everything about this institution, hence, my focus is to ensure that I put in place policies aimed at improving the academic profile of the institution.
These were the words of the Acting Provost of Rivers State College of Health Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Dr Nnamdi Amadi.
In an exclusive interview with The Tide, Dr Amadi who is the second internally generated head of the school, explained that his goal of improving the academic profile of the college and ensuring that it is reckoned with in terms of excellence was achievable.
The key challenge, he said is provision of necessary facilities like well equipped classrooms, laboratories and hostels among others, stressing that they were the core problems facing the school, which his administration must strive to overcome inorder to attain excellence. According to him, this would ensure that all the programmes and courses in the institution attain accreditation.
Towards ensuring that the school attains that required excellence, he said, every other aspects have been fine-tuned to make it easier for the school to forge ahead.
“It is going to be easy because in this institution, we work as a family. All hands are on deck to ensure that we achieve our aim: the Bursary, Academic Planning and every other Departments as well as staff and students work closely towards taking the institution to an enviable height”, he explained.
Beyond these challenges, Dr Amadi acknowledged the importance of finance in executing and or putting in place necessary facilities which are criteria for the programmes in the school to be accredited.
“Already, there are excruciating challenges which we have in this college. The major challenge is to ensure that all our courses are accredited, because without accreditation, the certificates we award may amount to nothing since accreditation is what gives meaning to the certificates.
Accreditation, the Acting Provost explained, passes through various stages: It starts with the school putting in place necessary facilities before inviting the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to undertake an assessment visit. This is followed by another visit during which provisional or full accreditation is given to programmes depending on state of facilities available.
From 2014 when the NBTE accorded a provisional accreditation status to three programmes, out of eleven in the college, he said, efforts to improve on the facilities in the school have been near impossible due to the fact that management of the school had to rely on only Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), which he said, is barely enough to provide other equally necessary services in running the school.
Such services, according to him, include provision of essential services such as water and light, security, payment of casual staff and the day-to-day running of the school.
Consequently, the college now faces the possibility of not only losing the provisional accreditation given to three of its programmes, but also not having a chance of the remaining eight programmes being accredited.
“By now, we are supposed to call on NBTE for full accreditation to those programmes we have already gotten provisional accreditation, and, possibly, get accreditation for Higher National Diploma (HND).
“But because of lack of finance, we have not been able to secure full accreditation for these other ones we have gotten. As I talk to you now, we are almost at the verge of losing the accreditation we have gotten”, he lamented.
A cursory look at facilities on ground in the campus reveals that accommodation for instance, is far below the over 4,000 students that require to be accommodated in the campus.
What the college has as a library and laboratory could at best go for a rickety arrangement to fulfil all righteousness.
This is by far below modern standard in which institutions now compete in such fields as e-library and the most equipped laboratories suitable to dispense what is required of a modern college of health sciences and technology.
Some of the students who spoke on condition of anonymity expressed personal fears regarding the status of their certificates if their programmes are not accredited by NBTE.
“The implication is that whatever we are struggling for, the pains we are going through in order to have a certificate will amount to nothing if our certificates cannot be recognised when we go to seek for job.
“This is why we are appealing to the government to please come to our aid by doing the needful so that programmes in this school can be accredited by the relevant authorities”, some of the students expressed pleaded.
Dr Amadi explained further that although several efforts have been made to present the challenges of the school to the Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike since his assumption of office in May, 2015, the political situation had made it difficult.
“But now that the Supreme Court has upheld his election, I believe that as a Governor that listens to the plight of his people, he is going to attend to the challenges”, he said.
He expressed fears over the worst case scenario should the NBTE withdraw the provisional accreditation given the three programme of the college and the possibility, of not accrediting any other programme.
“If we lose accreditation for those programmes, it means we are going back to the starting point.
“For us to regain the accreditation, it means we have to go back to the basics to provide those facilities, and it will be terrible.
“Moreso, it will also lead to a kind of retrenchment, because if we do not have money to sustain some of the programmes, definitely, we will step some of the programmes down.
“When we do this, lecturers who teach those programmes both part time and full time, will have to leave as well, and this will add to the unemployment situation in the state”, he said.
Sogbeba Dokubo
Dr Nnamdi Amadi
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