A call has gone to the Speaker of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Alhaji Musa Ahmed Mohammed, to ensure that the School of Health Technology, Keffi is upgraded to the status of a college to meet the requirements of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).

The call was made by the vice chairman of the committee of Academic Staff Association of the School of Health Technology, Keffi, Mr. Ahiyabu Sunday Sylvester, when he led members of the association on a courtesy visit to the Speaker in his office in Lafia, recently.

Mr. Sylvester said the non-upgrading of the school to the status of a college has prevented the Higher National Diploma (HND) students of the school from participating in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, observing that students of similar institutions that have been upgraded to the status of a college are participating in the NYSC scheme.

He said despite the fact that the school was established in 1999, the permanent site of the school was yet to be developed since the laying of foundation in 2002 by the former governor of Nasarawa State, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu.

The vice chairman said that the school currently has four departments, namely Community Health Department, Environmental Health Department, Medical Laboratory Sciences Department and Health Information Management.

According to him, these departments run courses for the award of Higher National Diploma/West African Health Examination Board (WAHEB), National Diploma and professional certificates.

In his brief, the Speaker, Alhaji Musa Ahmed Mohammed, thanked the association for finding time to visit him to present their problems.

He assured them that their problems would be looked into with a view to solving them.

The Speaker also assured the association that the accreditation committee would do all it could to accredit some courses being run by the school.

Alhaji Mohammed said he would use his position to assist reposition the school.

According to the Speaker, the Assembly adequately took care of all institutions in the 2008 budget, adding that he is going to ensure that the budget of the School of Health Technology, Keffi is properly implemented.

He also told the visiting team that the state House of Assembly would do its best to amend the law establishing the school, to give it the desired recognition.