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The Federal Government has disclosed that there is the possibility that some Nigerians working in public and private organisations are parading fake educational certificates.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, expressed this concern while receiving an inter-ministerial committee report on illegitimate academic degrees at his office on Friday, May 3, 2024.
The Federal Government had tasked the committee to investigate the activities of over 100 private universities and their counterparts in Benin Republic, Togo and other countries in reaction to an investigative report by a Daily Nigerian journalist.
The report exposed how some degree mills took advantage of the laxity in the Nigerian system to get away with their actions.
However, Mamman expressed sadness over the discoveries during the investigation, noting that the ministry would collaborate with relevant agencies to instil sanity in the education sector and rid it of fake tendencies.
“We can’t afford to have the integrity of our education swayed by a few people.
“It is possible that some are carrying fake certificates in public and private organisations and need to be flushed out. This report is the product of a thorough investigation.
“It is sad that someone who should come out of a Nigerian institution with a 2:1 or 2:2 is now parading an international certificate of first class.
“The ministry is determined to take steps to sanitise the system,” the minister said.
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For his part, the Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Committee, Amin, while presenting the report, decried the horrible standards of education in the schools investigated, stressing that many of them were an eyesore.
Amin stressed that the prevalent problem requires urgent intervention, recommending that all agencies in the sector embrace digitisation and automation of their systems.
He reckoned that automating the entire education sector was the best approach as it allows for easy and real-time monitoring of activities of all tertiary institutions at the touch of a button.
“In the course of our investigation, we realised that the present programme of accreditation and evaluation of results is inadequate,” Amin stated.