Regulatory Bodies in the Education Sector NUC NBTE

Regulatory Bodies in the Education Sector. NUC, NBTE, NCCE, UBEC. Policy, Problems and Prospects. Presented by; Prof. Salihu Y. Ingawa. mnae. At a Four Day Training Workshop of Journalists on Investigating the Education Sector. 16 th-23 rd October , 2017. Held at Links Hotels, Utako District, Abuja.

Background. The National Universities Commission was established by the National Universities Commission Act, Cap N 81 LFN 2004, which was first enacted as the National Universities Commission Act No. 1 of 1974 and undergone minor amendments in 1993 under Decree 10 of 1993.

The National Universities Commission is the institution that regulate the activities of the Nigerian University System. It is to ensure an efficient and balanced co-ordinated development of the Nigerian Universities which should facilitate the flourishing of the tripartite mandates of Universities which are Teaching, Research and Community service. The current challenges facing the Nigeria University System, introduced a wide gap in the legal framework and as such reduced the capacity of NUC to deal with those challenges. The extant law only directed NUC to close down unapproved Universities without prescribing sanctions for operators and promoters of such acts. Consequently, there has been sporadic and endemic increase in the number of illegal degree awarding mills in the country beyond the capacity of NUC. There is therefore the urgent necessity to amend the law to criminalise the operations of illegal Universities and prescribe sanctions for violators of its prohibition.

• amendment is also proposed to sanction employers of holders of certificates of illegal degree/diploma certificate mills. Furthermore, with the increase of the private Universities to 61 (and more are expected to come on board), there is urgent need to legally and properly empower NUC to ensure effective regulatory control over the licenced Universities so as to make the licences amendable to suspension and withdrawal by NUC whenever the circumstances warrant it. This is because more and more licenced Universities are currently exploiting the existing legal gap to violate the terms and conditions of their licences without NUC properly positioned in terms of legal capacity to deal with such situations. These are some of the imperatives of seeking reformative amendments to the provisions of the National Universities Commission Act.

The National Universities Commission regulates one hundred and forty three (143) Universities and three (3) Inter-Universities Centers. A typical example of policy launch before planning and the thoughts of how to go about it comes later in terms of planning. In the true sense planning should come before policy launch, but the following Universities are operating without the enabling statutes University of Uyo Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun Federal University, Lokoja Federal University, Lafia Federal University, Kashere Federal University, Wukari Federal University, Dutsin-Ma Federal University, Dutse Federal University, Ndufu-Afike Federal University, Oye-Ekiti Federal University, Otuoke Federal University, Birnin Kebbi Federal University, Gasua Federal University, Gusau Nigerian Police Academy Among the three Inter-University Ceters the following two(2) are without enabling statutes: Nigeria French Language Village, Badagry Nigeria Arabic Language Villgage, Gashua.

• The National Board of Technical Education was established in 1977 under the National Board for Technical Education Decree No. 9 of 1977. This Act went through minor amendments in 1993 under the National Board for Technical Education (Amendment) Decree No. 8 of 1993.

The National Board for Technical Education(NBTE) regulates the following institutions. i) Polytechnics one hundred (100) ii) Colleges of Agriculture thirty five (35) iii) Colleges of Health Science thirty two (32) iv) Other Monotechnics twenty seven (27) v) Innovation Enterprise Institutions(IEIs) one hundred and twenty six (126) vi) Vocational Enterprise Institutions(VEIs) seventy two (72) vii) Technical Colleges one hundred and seven (107). The institutions award the following certificates as appropriate to the graduate of the programmes; i) National Diploma (ND). ii) Higher National Diploma (HND). iii) Full Professional Diploma (Post-HND) or iv) National Innovation Diploma (NID) v) National Vocational Certificate (NVC) vi) National Technical Certificate (NTC) vii) National Business Certificate (NBC) viii) Advance National Technical Certificate (ANTC) ix) Advance National Technical Certificate (ANBC) •

• The National Commission for Colleges of Education was established vide the National Commission for Colleges of Education Decree No. 3 of 1989 and slightly amended in 1993 under the National Commission for Colleges of Education Act No. 12 of 1993.

The National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) regulates one hundred and forty one(141) Nigerian Certificate of Education (NCE) awarding institutions. These are mainly federal, states and Private Colleges of Education and other NCE awarding Schools of Education operated by Polytechnics and the Military. Recently the Commission restructured the NCE certificate to conform to its mandate of serving as the qualification for basic education teacher in Nigeria. The new restructured certificates are as follows; i) Nigerian Certificate in Education(N. C. E. ) Early Child Care Development Education. ii) Nigerian Certificate in Education(N. C. E. ) Primary Education. iii) Nigerian Certificate in Education(N. C. E. ) Junior Secondary Education. iv) Nigeria Certificate in Education(N. C. E. ) Adult and Non Formal Education. v) Nigeria Certificate in Education(N. C. E. ) Special Education. The restructuring started in 2007 and completed in 2010 but due to the conflict of interest between the primary stakeholders specifically the academic unions and in some instances the Management of the Colleges of Education made it difficult to allow the take off of the new certificate courses. This resistance forced the NCCE to subject the restructured course contents especially the Junior Secondary NCE certificate to include courses that do not exist at the Junior Secondary School level. This made many of the Colleges reluctant to adopt the new structure, especially the restructuring of the Schools into five reflecting the new NCE certification. It is this restructuring that really provided for the first time since 1998 the qualified professional basic education teacher for the UBE programme.

Changes needed in the Existing Legislation. I • Besides their respective establishment statutes, the three regulatory agencies are statutorily and operationally combined to concurrently operate Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions) Act Cap E 3, LFN 2004, which was first enacted in 1985 as the Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions) Decree No. 16 of 1985. This Act specifies the three regulatory agencies as the “appropriate authorities” for the prescription of minimum academic standards of their respective spheres of operation, and ascribed various powers to them to enforce and regulate standards. It was slightly amended in 1993 under Decree No. 9 of 1993 and these are fully encapsulated in the present format of Cap E 3 LFN 2004.

• In order to properly align the tenure of office of the Executive Secretaries with that of the Head of Tertiary Institutions the Act should be amended to reduce their terms from multiple tenures to a single term of five (5) years only. • Enhancement of the administrative structure by providing for dual Deputy Executive Secretaries to reflect the expanded responsibilities of the Regulatory bodies to the enlarged tertiary education System.

The Regulatory bodies require enhanced powers over staff conditions of service subject to Public Service Rules. Their functions need to be properly reviewed, realigned and expanded to reflect the mandates and functions of new departments and structures that evolved after the first enactment, so as to reflect the contemporary challenges in the tertiary education System and articulate an institutional legal framework to combat them. New provisions are required to govern the licensing processes, licensing conditions, prohibition of illegal and unauthorized institutions, as well as suspension and revocation of licenses, all of which were absent in the first enactment. Formalization of the regulatory directives and institutionalization of public and private oversight inquiries in order to enhance the investigative and information-gathering capacities of the Regulators

• In line with the challenge posed by illegal tertiary institutions, there is the need for the following amendments; • Powers to enforce the ban on the operation of illegal tertiary institutions. • Powers to inspect, search, seize, and arrest, will assist the regulators in enforcing the regulations. • The Regulators also need to be empowered to make and issue regulations on offences and sanctions so as to curb them and issue penalties. Prescribe appropriate sanctions for obstructing officials in the performance of their duties. • Specific procedures to be prescribed for instituting suit against the Regulators.

Education (National Minimum Standards And Establishment Of Institutions) Act Cap E 3 LFN 2004 • This Education Act is a 1985 legislation which combined the regulatory functions of the NUC, NBTE and NCCE (which are referred to as “appropriate authorities”) for the purpose of enforcement of regulations. • Basically, it is an operational law targeted at quality assurance indices including, but not limited to, setting of academic standards, accreditation, inspection of academic facilities, closure of illegal institutions, etc. • However, despite some marginal amendments which took place in 1993, the contemporary legislative challenges facing regulators in the tertiary education sector in general, have made the content and context of the Act to be deficient, thereby creating yawning legal gaps waiting to be filled by amendment of the Education Act.

• Pursuant to that, the Federal Executive Council in 2011, approved a body of amendments to the Education Act which was subsequently forwarded to the National Assembly before the expiration of the term of the 7 th Assembly in 2015.

Gaps in the Existing Legislation Conflicting and competing accreditation exercises of professional bodies, which run parallel to (and often run riot with exclusive accreditation powers as contained in Section 10 of the Education Act) need to be addressed once and for all by making the accreditation of the Regulators supervening over those of professional bodies. Absence of legislative prohibitions and sanctions against establishment and operation of unapproved programmes, illegal satellite campuses, unapproved affiliations (both local and foreign) has become the bane of the Nigerian Tertiary Education System which needs to be addressed statutorily. The extant provisions of the Education Act only empowers the Regulators to close down illegal institutions without provision of sanctions for their operator and promoters. The Bill before the Senate proposed amendments to:

Criminalise, prohibit and sanction the operators and promoters of illegal tertiary institutions. It proposes to sanction employers of graduates of illegal tertiary institutions. It proposes to sanction the owners of properties used to operate illegal tertiary institutions. It enables the Regulators to temporarily oversee the affairs of the institution whose governance structure has broken down. It proposes to empower the Regulators to make regulations that will make the supervision of institutions more flexible.

It proposes to grant regulators the legal capacity to withdraw or suspend operation licences granted to private tertiary institution whenever it is necessary. It proposes to grant the regulators the legal capacity to close down deficient academic programmes in approved institutions that failed to meet prescribed statutory Minimum Academic Standards (MAS) It addresses the issue of obsolete and inadequate minimum guaranteed capital prescribed for Private institutions in the extant laws. It proposes to address the issue of inadequate legal framework to enhance the corporate status of the licenced private institutions.

Challenges. • Haphazard nature by funding agencies in the disbursement of funds without synergy. (Tet. Fund, UBEC, SDG, NITDA. PTDF, NCC, CBN). • Lack of Values in education, but examination. This suggests that Nigeria is operating Examination system instead of Education system!!! • Examination misconduct. A big threat to quality education. The legislation is NOT strong enough to deter.

• Teaching remains unattractive leading to loss of social status and respect for the teacher. • Resolve the political and financial issues impeding the implementation of the Teacher Salary Scale(TSS) • Accelerate the process of making the National Teacher Education Policy(NTEP) a reality through legislation. • Accelerate the process of transforming the Quality Assurance Service into a Commission through legislation.

• Initiate and process the creation of the much needed and awaited National Teacher Education Council. Teaching is the ONLY profession without a regulator. This will help to facilitate the professionalization of Schools management and educational leadership. • Address the constitutional provision on Concurrent and Legislative List(Federal/States) responsibilities on education.

• Avoid the haphazard sometimes uncoordinated changes to policies. • Un useable data. Data in education not reliable. Restructure the NEMIS and make it work in a sustained and robust condition. • Planning should pre-date policy launch e. g. UPE, UBE. • Political will to implement policies and see them sustained remains critical and most crucial.

• Address the problems of sorting in tertiary institutions, especially cultism, drug abuse, extortion, sexual harassment, examination malpractice , missing results, grade sorting, fake statement of results. • Provide and emphasize a robust and sustained Guidance and Counseling services in all tertiary institutions. • Make Guidance and Counseling Services a primary requirement for accreditation. • Establish the data bank of expelled students at each of the Tertiary education Regulator for records and reference in order to curtail re-admission of such students without proper clearance.

Establish the Tertiary Education Commission as envisaged since 2007. The draft legislation is all ready for presentation as Executive Bill but the Obasanjo administration ran out of time and has since then been left under the carpet. Establish Ministry for Higher Education to reduce the bureaucracy in the present Ministry of Education. Give total autonomy to tertiary institutions to enable them source their funds for government to give them grants only. Bring back the Students Loans Board to enable the less privilege students pay for their education. Bring back the Education Bank for students to enjoy soft loans to finish their higher education. Provide a robust and sustained scholarship and Bursary programmes for the children of the less privileged to enable them access the funding for their higher education in and out of the country.