NBTE begins accreditation of seven programmes in Gombe college

The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has commenced a resource inspection and accreditation exercise at the Federal College of Horticulture, Dadin-Kowa, Gombe State.

The exercise, led by the Director of Polytechnic and Allied Programmes Department of the NBTE, Elder Ayo Aroge, is assessing programmes presented for full accreditation, re-accreditation and resource inspection.

Programmes presented for full accreditation include Higher National Diploma (HND) Agribusiness Management, HND Fisheries Technology, HND Science Laboratory Technology (Microbiology), HND Cooperative Economics and Management, National Diploma (ND) Social Development, ND Computer Science, and ND Library and Information Science.

For re-accreditation, the college presented HND Agricultural and Extension Management and HND Pest Management Technology, while HND Science Laboratory Technology (Microbiology), HND Cyber Security and Data Protection, and HND Social Development were presented for resource inspection.

The NBTE team inspected facilities, equipment, manpower and other learning resources across the relevant departments. Departments were also required to account for available resources and identify areas requiring improvement.

Aroge expressed confidence in the college’s preparedness and urged the management, departments and relevant units to cooperate fully with the accreditation team.

He said resource persons had been assigned to various departments to facilitate the exercise and ensure an efficient assessment.

The exercise is being conducted under the supervision of the Executive Secretary of the NBTE, Prof. Idris Muhammad Bugaje.

Receiving the delegation, the Provost of the college, Dr Umar Abdullahi, said the management had made concerted efforts to meet the standards and requirements of the regulatory body.

Abdullahi said the institution had invested in equipment, facilities and qualified manpower in line with NBTE guidelines, despite the college not currently benefiting from TETFund intervention.

He explained that the facilities and resources provided for the exercise were funded through the college’s internal allocation.

At the end of the inspection, the NBTE team commended the management for what it described as significant upgrades and improvements across various areas of the institution.

The team, however, identified some minor outstanding requirements that needed to be addressed to bring the programmes up to the required accreditation standards.

Responding to the observations, Abdullahi assured the team that the college would address the outstanding requirements within the shortest possible time.

He also appreciated the NBTE delegation for its professionalism and cooperation with the institution’s staff throughout the exercise.