Dr Kingsley Nyarko (arrowed) NAB Executive Secretary with the participants
Government is verifying the authenticity of the qualifications of teaching staff of all Technical Universities to curb increasing cases of fraudulent qualifications for both employment and further studies.
According to the Minister of State in-charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwasi Yankah, the exercise would be extended to staff of all public institutions in the country.
In order to address the problem of using fake certificates in the country, he said Ghana was in the process of developing an overarching national qualification framework (NQF) for all types of qualifications while a qualifications framework, with eight levels starting from proficiency through technical to doctoral for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) has been completed.
The Minister said these in a speech read on his behalf at the opening of a two-day second Annual General Meeting of the African Qualifications Verification Network (AQVN), currently underway in Accra.
Organised in partnership with the National Accreditation Board (NAB), the meeting brought together 40 participants from various African countries including Nigeria, Cameroon, Lesotho, Zambia, Botswana, Angola, eSwatini, formerly Swaziland and a representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Among other things, the AGM was to share the latest trends and debates in verification and evaluation of educational qualifications, share experiences of key achievements or products developed as well as challenges of verification related activities undertaken since 2017.
The meeting was also to discuss issues relating to the Addis Convention as well as other global conventions and its links with the AQVN objectives, review the network’s plan for 2018-2019 and develop an action plan for 2019-2020.
Due to globalisation, spurred by knowledge-based societies and technological advancement, Prof. Yankah said quality education and its corresponding qualifications remained an important element in all national and international initiatives, agenda and plans for development.
He said no country could achieve meaningful and sustainable development if it was dependent on products of its local education for its manpower needs, stressing that factors including globalisation, economic integration, regional and continental agreements on trade, movement of labour among others make it imperative for movement of qualifications across borders.
However, he stated that weak continental frameworks for recognition of educational qualifications, which formed the basis for determining the level of knowledge, skills and competency, were major setbacks in the implementation of bilateral and multilateral agreements.
In this regard, Prof. Yankah said the initiative to establish a continental network to promote qualification verification and recognition was not only strategic but timely for the realisation of national and continental goals on sustainable development.
Effective education qualification recognition across borders, he said would sustain public confidence and trust in the quality of recognised qualifications and ensure smooth and effective academic and labour mobility.
He added that Ghana has signed mutual recognition agreements with some countries including France and Russia for expedited recognition of qualifications.
He urged the AQVN Council to develop appropriate practice and guidelines for its members and assured that Ghana was ready to support and participate in such initiatives to develop all areas and levels of education.
Dr Kingsley Nyarko, Executive Secretary, National Accreditation Board, said the proliferation of unaccredited institutions running tertiary education programmes, high incidence of phony certificates, delays in receiving response to request for verifications of certificates from some Asian and African countries among others were challenges faced in the course of verifying and evaluating certificates.
The NQF when completed, he said would provide the parameters to determine the equivalences of certificates and what it takes to earn a certain qualification.
By Claude Nyarko Adams
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