Albertina Nakale
Windhoek-The Namibia Qualifications Authority (NQA) will issue a list of accredited institutions that will be made available at all regional council offices, schools and libraries countywide.
The full list is already available on the NQA website: www.namqa.org since December last year.
NQA chief executive officer Franz Gertze confirmed the body will issue the updated list of all accredited Namibian institutions in a booklet to be distributed countrywide.
He said this is in line with the NQA’s objective to enhance public access to its services and information that will enable people to make informed decisions.
The booklet contains the list of Namibian institutions that are currently accredited by the NQA and thus have been found to have the capacity to offer specified courses at the appropriate level of quality and assess the performance of learners taking such courses.
“Essentially, if an institution or course does not appear on this list then it is not accredited. The NQA does not evaluate qualifications obtained at unaccredited institutions and therefore such qualifications will not be recognised for any purpose, be it employment or further studies,” he cautioned.
Through distribution of the booklet, he says, the NQA aims to empower the public with information that will enable them to easily identify bogus institutions and in particular those that fraudulently use the NQA’s name to lure students.
The NQA advised prospective students to always verify the accreditation status of both the institution and the specific courses they would like to pursue.
“In some cases, institutions go beyond their specified accreditation scope by offering courses that have not been quality assured, a situation which bears critical consequences to learners because although the institution is accredited, any qualification that falls outside the scope of accreditation will not be recognised,” Gertze noted.
The NQA reaffirmed it is ready to assist the public to verify which institutions are accredited both in Namibia and anywhere else in the world and encouraged all prospective students to make use of this free service.