The Managers of the National Teachers’ Institute’s (NTI) study centres are appealing to President Bola Tinubu and the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, to reconsider the government’s cancellation of the institute’s 2026 admissions, warning that more than 21,000 students could have their academic plans disrupted.
The appeal sets up a clash between regulators’ efforts to enforce accreditation rules and students’ expectations that enrollment at a federally supervised institution should be protected.
The NTI Centre Managers’ Forum, in an appeal signed by National Chairman Frank Jumbo and National Secretary Mamuda Doguwa, asked the government to allow affected students to complete their programmes while regulatory reforms proceed.
It said many students had already secured admission, registered, attended lectures, and sat for first-semester examinations in August 2026.
The forum argued that students should not bear the cost of institutional or administrative failures, particularly after paying fees and relying on what they believed was a legitimate, government-owned institution.
It called for transitional arrangements, stakeholder consultations, and a review of NTI’s admission and academic operations.
The Federal Ministry of Education announced the cancellation on November 7, saying NTI violated operational guidelines issued in September 2025.
It said the institute is not authorised to award the National Certificate in Education (NCE) or university degrees, and ordered it to end all university affiliations and degree-awarding arrangements.
The Ministry said NCE admissions must comply with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) requirements and the National Commission for Colleges of Education’s (NCCE) accreditation standards.
It also directed the National Universities Commission (NUC) to notify affected universities and enforce the termination of NTI’s degree arrangements.
The government barred new admissions into the affected NCE and degree programmes, whether full-time, part-time, or through distance learning, and warned prospective students not to apply, accept offers, or make payments.
For students already enrolled, however, the ministry said the NCCE would conduct a comprehensive accreditation review of existing NCE II–IV distance-learning programmes and study centres across the six geopolitical zones.
Eligible students may be permitted to complete their programmes, but only subject to the accreditation outcome and other regulatory requirements.
The ministry said NTI’s statutory mandate remains teacher training, retraining, in-service development, and continuing professional education.
It added that the institute may continue offering a three-to six-month special abridged programme for serving teachers who hold non-education degrees and need professional qualifications for registration with the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).
The forum said NTI has served more than one million Nigerians over 45 years, providing an alternative route to education for people constrained by cost, work, family obligations, or distance from conventional institutions.
It described its appeal not as opposition to reform, but as a demand for a “carefully considered transition” that does not sacrifice students’ futures.
