National Universities Commission (NUC) has accredited five bachelor of education courses (B.Ed) at the Nasarawa State College of Education, Akwanga, an affiliate of Ahmadu Bello University ()ABU), Zaria.

Some of the programmes accredited are B.Ed Islamic Studies (ISS), B.Ed Christian Religious Studies (CRS), B.Ed Mathematics, B.Ed Language Arts and B.Ed Social Studies.

The exercise, which lasted three days took place at the boardroom of the college and had Professor Ayo Oni of the faculty of education, University of Maiduguri as team leader, representative of the NUC, Mrs. V. Pillar, Professor Nwezi, faculty of education, University of Nigeria, Nnsuka and Dr, (Mrs.) H. M. Inuwa, Director, Academic Planning, ABU, Zaria, among others in attendance.

The representative of NUC, Mrs. V. T. Pillar, said that the rationale behind the exercise was to determine the capacity of the college with regards to human and material resources.

According to the commission, this would enable the management of the college take decision towards regularizing the affiliation arrangement with ABU or to validate and revalidate the graduates that had already graduated from the institution.

On his part, the team leader of the accreditation exercise, Professor Ayo Oni, said laying a strong foundation of education in the country should be the legacy the present generation should bequeath to the young generation.

Professor Oni said those who went to school in the early 50s, 60s and 70s would attest to good and strong system of education, saying "whatever we prepare now would tell so much about us when we are weak".

The team leader explained that the essence of the exercise was not a vindictive one or a fault-finding exercise, but rather "for us to do on the spot assessment what ought to be and if they are there, we all acknowledge that they are there and suggest areas to improve on".

Earlier, in an address of welcome, the Provost, Nasarawa State College of Education, Akwanga, Alhaji Isa Muktari Waya, expressed determination of the college to ensure quality delivery of educational programmes and the production of effective teachers for the society.

The provost who also expressed optimism over the exercise, said it was timely as it would go a long way in readdressing some of the weaknesses facing the college and called on the authority of ABU to keep playing its fatherly role through proper monitoring and supervision to ensure quality control of the output of the students.

Alhaji Waya who enumerated lack of funding, inadequate staff, lack of library materials and inadequate infrastructure as some of the constraints facing the college, called on the state government to come to its aid.

He said "in spite of the misgiving, we are comforted that the state government has taken great interest in partnership agenda, which has translated into the B.Ed programme, which is affiliated to ABU, Zaria, saying that with the favourable disposition by the accreditation team, the state government would ensure the sustainability of the programme.

He said, since the commencement of the programme in 2000, the college had graduated five sets of students, totaling 137 and at which 52 graduated in social studies, 20 in CRS, while 24, 37 and 4 graduated in ISS, Language Arts and Mathematics, respectively.

The provost also said that lack of accreditation of courses by the NUC to run B.Ed programmes affected the admission of 2007/2008 of the affiliate institution, saying that with the accreditation of the courses, the college would avail itself the opportunity to admit students in the next academic session.