Windhoek
The Ministry of Higher Education, Training and Innovation is busy finalising the process of amending the Namibia Qualifications Authority (NQA) Act of 1996 to put an end to the mushrooming of bogus educational institutions in Namibia.
In terms of the current enabling legislation – the NQA Act 29 of 1996 – accreditation is not mandatory in Namibia and therefore training providers are not obliged to be accredited by the NQA.
But once the amending process is finalised, the fundamental change will make accreditation mandatory.
In an interview with the NQA acting chief executive officer, Sara Alweendo, on Tuesday, she said in future no training providers will be allowed to enrol learners without obtaining accreditation from the NQA.
“We thus encourage all unaccredited training providers to make use of this time to ensure that they get their houses in order before the new law is passed,” she urged.
The Bill is yet to go through the legal drafters before entering the National Assembly for discussion and adoption.
She said there are many unaccredited institutions operating in Namibia and elsewhere in the world.
Of late, she revealed, they noted with great concern the trend of unaccredited providers who are fraudulently using the NQA name to lure students to their institutions.
Therefore, Alweendo cautioned all prospective students to always verify the accreditation status of institutions with the NQA before enrolling for studies so that they do not fall prey to these bogus institutions.
To date, she said, there are currently 41 NQA accredited institutions operating in Namibia. These, she added, are institutions that have successfully completed the NQA’s extensive quality assurance processes and have been found to have the capacity to provide specified courses and assess the performance of learners enrolled in such courses.
Asked whether the NQA hotline is still active, Alweendo noted that it is still fully operational.
“We are pleased to say that the public have been making full use of the fraud hotline to report various cases of fraud and unethical behaviour relating to qualifications. Some of these cases involve people laying false claims to qualifications, using fraudulent qualifications to ensure employment as well institutions falsely using the NQA name to lure students to their establishments, and many others,” she said.
Depending on the merits of each case, she said, such reports have been forwarded to the relevant authorities for further investigation and action.
She thanked members of the public who have so far made use of the fraud hotline to report these fraudulent activities, and further encouraged others who may be aware of similar or other cases to feel free to report them.
“The NQA assures the public that the fraud hotline is independently managed by the Deloitte auditing firm and reports can be made anonymously, which means the whistle-blower’s identity is always protected,” Alweendo maintained.
She encouraged unaccredited training providers to always approach the NQA for assistance on how to get their programmes accredited.
“Our primary concern is the thousands of learners who need to access education in order to secure a better future for themselves and their families. Unfortunately some of them end up at unaccredited institutions, where they are robbed of their time and hard-earned money, and obtain qualifications which will not be recognized,” she said.
But she assured all graduates that they have an equal opportunity at employment regardless of where they studied in Namibia and for this reason NQA invites all unaccredited training providers to get their programmes quality assured.