The Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Dr. Mas’udu Kazaure, announced on Monday that the board has closed no fewer than 50 illegal polytechnics and monotechnics operating without government’s approval across the country.
Dr. Mas’udu who stated this in Kaduna at a meeting between the Board and the national leadership of the Nigerian Union of Journalists said the institutions affected were operating in contravention of the Basic Minimum Academic Standards as prescribed by law and have been running ND and HND programmes in several satellite campuses across the country.
The NBTE boss further explained that the shut schools lacked the required facilities to run satellite campuses. Kazaure, who was silent on the names of the shut institutions, asserted that they were established to defraud innocent Nigerians, adding that they were concentrated in the North-Central Zone, especially in Benue State.
The NBTE Executive Secretary, who acknowledged the significant role played by Journalists, said the board would not hesitate to do the needful and ensure that the academic outfit, which is committed to training and retraining journalists, is duly accredited in order for journalists to be more professionally qualified, efficient in the discharge of their duties and alert.
He said NBTE would soon accredit courses of the International Institute of Journalism, IIJ, owned by the NUJ adding that Journalists are partners in progress in terms of information gathering and dissemination, while soliciting for more partnership between the NBTE and the NUJ in that regards.
Dr Kazaure disclosed that the board has about 435 institutions under its supervision with several other institutions seeking accreditation.
