BARELY two months after his assumption of office as the Rector of the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, Prof Mike Iloeje has succeeded in regaining full accreditation of the institute.The cheering news is being celebrated in Enugu and beyond, especially considering the circumstances that led to its withdrawal by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE)in October this year.At a press briefing in Kaduna, NBTE secretary, Dr Mas'udu Adamu Kazaure, said the withdrawal of accreditation of the institution's Ordinary National Diploma (OND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes was due to gross violation and inability to comply with approved carrying capacity.The school was also accused of over enrolment and admission of poorly qualified students, decaying infrastructure, illegal sale of unauthorised books and extortion of students, among all manner of academic malpractices by lecturers and management.The implication of the withdrawal was that more than 5,000 graduates of the IMT could not be mobilised for this year's November National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, while admission of fresher's through the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was no longer possible.Touched by the development, the state government, in a surprise but welcomed move, sacked the former Rector and his Deputy, Registrar, Chairman and members of the governing council of the school with immediate effect and set up a judicial panel on inquiry to look into its affairs.Government appointed Iloeje as the new Rector, and constituted a new board of management to clean up the mess and restore the withdrawn accreditation, so as to restore the confidence of the students of the school.Iloeje, on assumption of office, immediately reinstated meetings of the institute's moribund Academic Board, which never met since November 2007, as well as the committee system of administration and management, streamlined the academic calendar of the institute and put in place a transparent management system, due process, peace and harmony in the institute.The Guardian gathered that this set the tone for the eventual restoration of the withdrawn accreditation.The NBTE had on November 21 written to the school to brief it on steps taken since the withdrawal was made. The management responded on November 25, with a follow up visit by the new management team to the NBTE national headquarters.It was gathered that the meeting became the tonic needed to restore the lost accreditation, as the board was convinced that the new management had addressed some of the problems that led to the withdrawal of the accreditation.The school was also said to have sent two proposals to the NBTEto streamline the unusual number of students to conform to the approved carrying capacity, out of which one called Plan B was adopted.Kazaure, who was said to have been delighted by the progress made by the new leadership of the school, had in a letter dated December 8 this year approved the restoration of full accreditation to the school.He wrote: 'It is hereby agreed that you would follow a two-year drawdown students enrolment, aimed at phasing out old students within the shortest time frame.'It is envisaged that this will reduce the current student population from 35,321 in the 2010/2011 academic session to 7080 in the 2012/2013 academic session.'NBTE was optimistic that the move was achievable and should school comply with approved carrying capacity during the admission of fresh students for the 2011/2012 session, it would advise JAMB and directorate of NYSC on the development.The Board, it was further gathered, promised to raise a team of resource persons in January next year to assess compliance with the directives and proffer ways of expanding the carrying capacity to carter for the needs of the teaming youth yearning for higher education.'Through this letter, the Registrar of JAMB is advised to allow IMT to admit students for the 2011/2012 academic session.'Equally, the directorate of NYSC is advised to mobilise the 2010/2011 Batch 'C' of your Institution,' the NBTE Executive Secretary was said to have told the Rector.In his contribution, Commissioner for Education, Dr. Simon Ortuanya, explained that with the restoration of the accreditation, IMT is now back full on stream.He attributed the success to the efforts of the state government and the new management of the institution.Ortuanya thanked the students of the school and their parents, as well as the people of the state for their understanding and the mature way they conducted themselves during theperiod the accreditation was withdrawn.He restated the determination of the administration of Governor Sullivan Chime to give priority attention to quality education and the well being of students studying in the state.Iloeje, a veteran Professor of Animal Genetics, was before his appointment, a Deputy Vice Chancellor at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO).Since assumption office, he has strived to restore the glory of the school.At an academic board meeting recently, he said it was unacceptable for the IMT, which prides as the foremost polytechnic east of the Niger and beyond, to lose accreditation.He stressed that the implication of the development was that the school would neither admit nor mobilise its graduates for national service, thereby losing some revenue that would have been used to further develop the school.He told the academic board that his mission was to change IMT for better by providing leadership for revamping the school and to steer the institution back to the great heights it had occupied in the education sector of the country.Iloeje challenged members of board to gear up for the enormous tasks ahead, explaining that overcoming the problems of the school required personal and general sacrifices.On staff welfare, the new Rector pledged to do everything possible to ensure that staff that do the work were happy.He added that promotions, salaries and allowances would come at the appropriate time.Academic thinkers, who established the IMT in 1973, fashioned it after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Unites States (US) for the training of quality technologists, technicians, as well as professional and managerial manpower in the subject areas directed at both the state and national needs would be produced.The thought was also to bring together the then College of Technology, Enugu, which offered OND level courses in Engineering and Laboratory Technology, and the Institute of Administration, which provided short-term in-service training courses for civil servants to various grades that had existed separately.With about seven schools, 32 academic departments and six administrative divisions, the IMT took off on a promising note and few years later, it began to make its mark in tertiary education by the quality of its graduates.If things continue as they are presently, there is the likelihood that the IMT Enugu would once again bounce back to greater glory sooner than later.
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