TheCable

Tahir Mamman, the minister of education, says the federal government will flush out persons in public and private organisations working with fake certificates.

Mamman spoke in Abuja on Friday when he received the report of an inter-ministerial investigative committee on degree certificate milling.

On January 9, the minister inaugurated the committee chaired by Jubrila Amin, a professor, to examine the veracity of allegations of degree racketeering within foreign and local private universities.

The committee was mandated to review the role of any ministry, department and agencies (MDAs) or officials in the facilitation of the recognition and procurement of fake certificates.

Speaking on the findings of the committee, Mamman said the ministry would work with relevant agencies to sanitise the education sector and rid it of any fake tendencies.

“We can’t afford to have the integrity of our education soiled by some few persons. It is possible that some are carrying fake certificates in public and private organisations that need to be flushed out,” he said.

“This report is a product of a thorough investigation. It is sad that someone who should come out from a Nigerian institution with a 2:1 or 2:2 is now parading an international certificate of first class.

“The ministry is determined to take steps to sanitise the system. We can’t afford to let down our country when it comes to standards.”

He pledged to take decisive measures to ensure standards are maintained in the system.

Speaking earlier, the chairman of the committee decried the poor standards of education found in schools that his team investigated.

He recommended that all agencies in the education sector must digitise/automate their system, noting that the problem requires a speedy intervention.

Amin said the committee found that the present procedure for accreditation and evaluation of university results is inadequate.

He urged the National Universities Commission (NUC) to scrutinise institutions offering part-time or sandwich programmes in the country.

“People go and get fake degrees and we have been to those countries and we know what a proper degree looks like, we know what the fake one looks like,” he said.

“We have given it to the ministry to scrutinise anyone presenting a certificate from those institutions and anything else is fake. It is up to the ministry to find people with fake certificates and deal with them.”