FCTA Commences Accreditation Of Schools In FCT

 The Department of Quality Assurance of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA has begun accreditation of schools in the Federal Capital Territory. This became necessary so as to ensure that the quality of teaching and learning are maintained in schools across the territory.

The Batch 16 accreditation exercise was to assess the level of compliance with the laid down rules and regulations governing both private and public schools.

The Acting Director of the Department of Quality Assurance Mrs. Magdalene Uzoanya, speaking during the of the evaluators, said that accreditation was a routine exercise and core activity of quality assurance mechanisms, which ensures that Schools are assessed in various areas of Education Management to enhance the quality of teaching and learning process.

She explained that both public and private Schools are accredited and the exercise should be carried out with utmost objectivity and transparency.

Uzoanya further charged the evaluators to ensure that a seamless interaction on the field is done with a great sense of professionalism, portraying their educational skills and discharging their responsibilities with utmost trust and confidentiality.

She said, the evaluators, who were drawn both from serving and retired officers should bring their wealth of experiences to bear and their ability to identify and apply the various aspects of the Assessment tools and rating of each School without compromise is needed at this point.

She urged them to work as a team on the field and ensure prompt submission of reports at the end of the exercise; noting that delay in reports also hinders the Department from performing other critical mandates.

She explained that the Department has been making concerted efforts to improve the process and with the new operational guidelines, it could be done every term.

The Director commended both the resource persons and evaluators, and assured them of the FCT Education Secretariat’s desire to enhance the quality of Education in the FCT for both public and private Schools.

In their separate submissions, the resource persons, Mrs. Alice Ogbanje, retired Deputy Director, Mr. Yahaya Omehi, retired Director, and Mrs. Titilayo Akpata also retired Ag. Director of the department respectivelyh highlighted the various aspects and processes of accreditation that must be well coordinated to include School location details, Curricular and Academic Activities, as well as Physical facilities/Environment/ Infrastructure.

Others are, Sports facilities, Staffing, Teacher Activities, Learning environment, Support Services, and Welfare.

Meanwhile, the resource persons advised the evaluators to seek clarifications when confronted with challenges while on the field and ensure the credibility of the accreditation exercise.

The intensive accreditation exercise, which is a week-long is expected to be carried out by a team of evaluators simultaneously in all the Six Area Councils of the FCT.