The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has withdrawn the accreditation status of the Abia State Polytechnic, Aba due to the non-payment of staff salaries and allowances for over 30 months.
A statement issued by the NBTE Head, Media Department, Hajia Fatima Abubakar, said the board took the decision when it realised that the management of the Abia State Polytechnic were not committed to offset the arrears and ensure regular payment of salaries of its staff.
The board said that on several occasions, it had warned the management of the Abia State Polytechnic that, “Regular payment of salary is one of the key components of the
Board’s normative instruments for quality assurance in the Polytechnics and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions under her purview.”
NBTE had also drawn the attention of the polytechnic to the dangers of non-payment of salaries, including the suspension of quality assurance visits, adding that the Governing Council and management of the polytechnic made several failed promises to settle the backlog of salary arrears and ensure regular payment of staff salaries.
She said the board went the extra mile of writing the Executive Governor of Abia State, informing him of the dire situation of the Polytechnic but all to no avail.
NBTE said the decision to withdraw the accreditation status of the Polytechnic was to safeguard the quality assurance mechanism of the Board and to ensure that students are not left at the mercy of demoralized staff that may resort to under the table practices to survive.
It warned the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) that no product of the Abia State Polytechnic should be mobilised for national service until the management of the polytechnic resolve the issue of nonpayment of salary to its staffers, while the Board promised to notify NYSC once the accreditation status of the polytechnic is restored.
The board said, notice of the withdrawal of the accreditation of Abia State Polytechnic has been sent to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in order to stop any official transaction with the polytechnic by those organisations. Polytechnic proprietors across the country are advised to take regular payment of salaries of staff seriously as failure could lead to loss of accreditation.
