By Tabora Bojang
The government has stepped up efforts to bring in the new National Accreditation and Quality Assurance Authority ((NAQAA) Act, envisaged as a comprehensive solution for efficient control and oversight of tertiary and higher education institutions in the country.
The bill, which passed a second reading in the Assembly yesterday, seeks among other things to increase registration fee for tertiary and higher education institutions.
“To open a university in The Gambia, until this bill is passed, one must pay D75,000,00 while for a tertiary institution, the fee is D50,000,00. This does not make sense because the tuition fee for one or two students will cover that cost and that is it! No wonder standards are where they are”, higher education minister Badara Joof told deputies as he tabled the bill.
Established by an act of parliament repealing the National Training Authority (NTA), NAQAA is mandated to serve as the regulatory body for the implementation of accreditation and quality assurance standards for the country’s tertiary and higher education institutions.
The proposed bill also seeks to provide a detailed and “proper legal framework for NAQAA to supervise and govern” the public and private tertiary and higher education institutions.
Minister Joof said the new bill intends to revamp the procedure governing the registration of tertiary institutions, increase registration fees and place bonds in case of defaults, in a bid to provide quality services to the people, by the indigenizing and domesticating both the curriculum and the skills that are needed, receptive and responsive to the development imperatives of the country. He disclosed that his ministry has been encountering problems in its attempt to close some “so-called universities” operating without “professors or lectures in relevant subjects” or those not able to “pay salaries for months while collecting tuition fees.”
“You cannot go and rent a house in Banjulinding, Lamin or London Corner and call it a university, without even professors or lecturers in the most relevant subjects. We have raided most of them with the help of the Inspector General of Police to close them. Some have gone even to the level of the president and are trying to lobby behind doors for us to accept it. But I am putting my job on the line for it. I don’t want to be associated with a legacy of mediocrity,” Minister Joof insisted.
