The Federal Government has pledged to root out Nigerians parading fake certificates, following an investigation into degree mills operating in the country.
Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, SAN, made the vow while receiving the report of the inter-ministerial committee on degree mills on Friday.
The committee was set up to investigate the activities of over 100 private universities and some foreign universities in Benin Republic, Togo, and other countries.
Mamman expressed sadness over the findings, saying the ministry would work with relevant agencies to sanitize the education sector and rid it of fake tendencies. “We can’t afford to have the integrity of our education swayed by a few people,” he said.
The Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Committee, Amin, presented the report, deploring the horrible standards of education in those schools. He recommended digitizing or automating the entire education system to monitor activities in tertiary institutions.
Amin also called for more universities in the country to train PhD holders, rather than Nigerians seeking certificates abroad and ending up with fake ones.
He urged the National Universities Commission to pay attention to institutions offering part-time or sandwich programs to avoid a repeat of the 2017 saga of unaccredited courses.
The government has vowed to scrutinize anyone presenting a certificate from those institutions and deal with those found with fake certificates accordingly.
