Abia State Polytechnic, Aba's accreditation has been revoked by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) because staff salaries and benefits have not been paid for more than 30 months.
This was stated in a statement released on Tuesday in Kaduna by Fatima Abubakar, Head of the NBTE Media Department.
According to Ms. Abubakar, the accreditation was revoked because the institution had not demonstrated a commitment to pay back the arrears and ensure that salaries were paid on time.
She clarified that one essential element of the board's regulatory instruments for quality assurance in the Polytechnics, Technical, Vocational Education and Training, TVET institutions was the regular payment of salaries.
She added that the board had alerted the polytechnic administration to the risks associated with unpaid salary, including the suspension of quality assurance visits.
The governing council and management of the polytechnic, according to Mr. Abubakar, made a number of broken pledges to pay the backlog of salary arrears.
"The board went the extra mile of writing to Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, informing him of the dire situation of the polytechnic but all to no avail.
"It is, therefore, with utmost sense of responsibility that the board has decided to withdraw the accreditation status of the polytechnic to safeguard the quality assurance mechanism of the board.
"It is also to ensure that students are not left at the mercy of demotivated staff that may resort to under the table practices to survive," she said.
According to Ms. Abubakar, the board has instructed the National Youth Service Corps, or NYSC, not to call up any polytechnic graduates for their national service until the institution fixes the issue.
According to the statement, the NBTE will inform the NYSC once the accreditation status had been restored.
She added that the board also informed the Tertiary Education Trust Fund and the Industrial Training Fund in a similar manner of its decision to revoke accreditation, asking them to cease all business dealings with the polytechnic.
The country's polytechnic owners are also urged to take seriously their obligation to pay employee salaries on time because failing to do so could result in loss of accreditation, according to Ms. Abubakar.
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