The Ministry of Education has tasked the National Accreditation Board (NAB)
to close down any identified unaccredited tertiary institution operating in
the country.

A Deputy Minister of Education, Dr Joseph Annan, who gave the directive,
said it was unacceptable for such institutions to operate.

He was speaking at a two-day programme in which agencies under the Ministry
of Education presented their 2009 annual performance reports to the
ministry in Accra.

The Executive Secretary of the NAB, Mr Kwame Dattey, who presented the
report of the board, said by next week the board would publish the names of
all accredited public and private tertiary institutions in the media.

"Accreditation is a system of according recognition to and monitoring an
educational institution for meeting satisfactory standards in performance,
integrity and quality," he said.

"Section 24 of Act 744 provides that any person who operates an
unaccredited institution, runs an unaccredited programme, advertises an
unaccredited institution or programme or fails to register a foreign
institution commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a
fine of not more than three hundred penalty units or to a term of
imprisonment of not more than two years or both," he added.

Mr Dattey said for any tertiary institution to be able to perform its core
functions, it must have, among others, well-qualified staff in adequate
numbers, a well-equipped and well-stocked library, an adequate number of
classrooms, lecture theatres, laboratories and work-shops with the
requisite equipment, as well as adequate and reliable sources of funding.

Simply put, he said, the institution must have the physical, material,
financial and human resources for the delivery of quality so that students
in possession of the requisite entry qualifications had a reasonable chance
of entering and passing the stipulated examinations at the end of their
studies.

Mr Dattey said the board determined the equivalencies of both local and
foreign qualifications, guided the nation's effort to expand access to
tertiary education and ensured that quality was not sacrificed.

The Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, who opened the meeting,
charged the participants to critically look at the issues put out by the
agencies to bring about improvement in the educational.