National Accreditation Council integral to nationwide development – Dr Hutson

In higher education, quality control is crucial to ensuring educational institutions deliver programmes that adhere to nationally and internationally acceptable standards.
This was emphasised by the Executive Director of the National Accreditation Council (NAC), Dr Marcel Hutson during a capacity-building workshop on Wednesday at the National Centre of Educational Resource Development (NCERD), Kingston, Georgetown.

The workshop sought to further highlight the importance of the council in Guyana’s trajectory of national development, as it continues to establish and uphold quality assurance in all post-secondary and tertiary education services through adherence to the necessary standards, both locally and globally.
To maintain the calibre and reputation of higher education in Guyana, NAC is in charge of examining, recognising, registering, and accrediting educational institutions.
Dr Hutson said the NAC continued to exist as an important component in Guyana’s national developmental trajectory while highlighting its responsibility for the revitalisation of higher education and to bring it on par with internationally, acceptable quality standards.

“If we are talking about real development and progress, then what we do at the council is most significant…we have to think holistically if we are going to be relevant…we want the message to be clear that while we have a responsibility to ensure that those who we allow into the labour force are of quality, we also have the responsibility of ensuring that we do the kind of groundwork that we will have persons who join the education sector with the various skillsets we need for national progress,” Dr Hutson explained.
The Executive Director noted that the council’s efforts must be recognised as a safeguard against dishonest businesspeople who would take advantage of and exploit vulnerable students, parents and guardians.
“The issue of quality is important…because at the end of the day, we want to ensure that we have the best students or workers out there making a contribution to the development of the nation,” he added.

Meanwhile, NAC Chairman Mohandatt Goolsarran applauded all participants on the journey to ensuring the system in place was credible and was not seriously challenging.
“The instrument that you use in doing your evaluations is not just an instrument saying standard met, standard partially met or standard not met. As you would have ticked those categories, you have to have notes to justify and back up to say why you would have arrived at that decision at the granting or not granting of recognition or accreditation of an institution,” Goolsarran stated.
Notably, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) academy is the first institution in Guyana to be accredited as a public institution.
NCERD Director Quenita Walrond-Lewis; Teaching Service Commission Chairperson Doodmattie Singh, Professor Jacob Opadeyi, External Evaluator, Dr Lidon Lashley, and other officials were also in attendance.
The workshop is themed: “Building Capacity to Effectively Meet the Needs of Higher Educational Institutions in Guyana: A Focus on Quality and Exclusivity in Pursuit of Regional and International Standards.”