Meridian Pre-University Dismisses 'Illegal' Status Claims

The board of the Meridian Pre-University in Accra has expressed shock at claims by officials of the National Accreditation Board and the Ghana Education Service (GES) that the operations of pre-universities in the country are illegal. According to a publication in the Thursday, January 27 edition of the Ghanaian Times newspaper, the National Accreditation Board described as “illegal” the proliferation of all pre-universities in the country. It said all pre-universities have not been duly accredited, rendering their certificates “worthless and invalid”. The accreditation board has therefore warned Ghanaians seeking entrance into these pre-universities to be careful since these pre-universities are not duly recognized. Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday, January 27, the president of the Meridian Pre- University, Tetteh Nertey expressed dismay at the publication. According to him, his institution has been permitted and accredited by the Ghana Education Service to operate as a Pre- University. “We are duly recognized and given permissions to operate and we have been doing so since 2007. We have centre numbers from the Ghana Education Service themselves, Meridian pre-University made sure that we cleared the air on these things so we wrote to Ghana Education Service and then ensured that we were on the right path, we were inspected and duly recognized, our centre number is 81, 71, 61anybody who wishes to check can go the GES and find out”. In a response from the director for Public Affairs at the National Accreditation Board, Richard Adjei insisted that these institutions are not recognized by the board. According to Richard Adjei pre-universities are not permitted to offer qualifications for students to gain admission into a University. “If it is a pre-university institution and you offer qualification that will qualify people to enter the University that would be wrong because in this country we all know the qualifications that you can use to enter the University…there is nothing like a pre-university qualification”.