The Ghana Tertiary Education Council has defended its decision to shut down Royal Nursing College, stating that the institution ignored repeated directives to renew its accreditation and continued to operate in unacceptable conditions.
Speaking on the Channel One Newsroom on Thursday, February 19, the Deputy Director-General of Ghana Tertiary Education Council, Augustin Ocloo, explained that no institution can legally run a programme without valid accreditation.
Prof. Ocloo stressed that although the school was previously accredited, its licence expired in 2021. “This school was accredited but the accreditation expired in 2021. It means that currently it is being run as an unaccredited institution which is against the act that established the commission.
“As far back as 2022 we’ve written to remind the founder of the institution that accreditation has expired and he must start the process to renew the accreditation. All the efforts were not yielding any positive results.”
He noted that in 2024, GTEC directed the school to stop admitting new students to prevent further complications. “So in 2024 in order not to create confusion we informed him that he should cease fresh admission so that those who are already in the school can complete the programme and then that will be the end until he goes through the procedure to get the accreditation status in place.”
Beyond the accreditation breach, Prof. Ocloo described what he called disturbing learning conditions at the facility located at Tafo Nyhiaeso in the Ashanti Region.
“If you see the condition under which this guy is operating as a nursing school you will be surprised. 300 students packed in a small hall like sardine and no table, they are just seated in like a church. We asked them how they are able to write.
“When we went there, they said the light was off, no generator. This is in the premise of a Montessori school so there were nursery children in that school and the place is actually stinking.”
Meanwhile, he earlier announced that the wife of the college’s director, who also runs the Montessori school linked to the institution, has been handed over to the police for prosecution. The council maintains that the closure was necessary to protect the more than 800 students enrolled and to uphold academic standards.
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