The inspection visit by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) towards accreditation of additional courses for the Plateau State College of Agriculture Garkawa in Mikang Local Government Area raises hope for production of more professionals in the sector.
This has also stimulated excitement among the management, teachers and students of the school.
They said the accreditation of those courses will go a long way in boosting not only the academic development of the school but the agricultural sector of the state and the nation by extension.
Speaking during the accreditation inspection, the Acting Provost of the college, Rev. Nathan Akila Loks, listed the programmes presented to the board for accreditation and inspection.
"The six HND programmes for resource inspection are HND Home and Rural Economics; HND Animal Health Technology; HND Animal Production Technology; HND Crop Production Technology; HND Pest Management Technology and HND Horticultural Technology.
"Also, the programmes for accreditation are HND Agricultural Extension and Management; ND Animal Health and Production Technology; ND Horticultural Technology and ND Home and Rural Economics.
"Similarly, the programmes for the re-accreditation are ND Agricultural Technology and Institutional Administration. This exercise is very important and necessary for the growth of the institution and development of agriculture.
"We are committed in the responsibility for the necessity of food security in the nation through qualitative training to meet up with the growing challenges of food production. And we want to assure the inspection team and resource persons from NBTE of our maximum co-operation throughout this assignment," he said.
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In his remarks, NBTE Deputy Director, Dr Rufai Ibrahim, expressed the willingness of the board to support and guide the college to grow from strength to strength, stressing that the addition of the new programmes will boost crop science and animal science in the country as well as Garkawa, which is an agricultural community.
He said they will be looking into the academic content of the programmes, the curriculum and admission into the programmes, academic regulations, standard of tests and examinations, among other things.
According to Dr Ibrahim, the college has been trying its best to put up some structures as well as human resources (workforce/teaching personnel), saying that all that will also be taking into consideration as the inspection experts embarks on their exercise.
