The National Accreditation Board (NAB) on Thursday said it would, under its mandate, collaborate with the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to maintain quality assurance in tertiary institutions running journalism and media related programmes. Mr Richard Kwadwo Adjei, Senior Assistant Secretary of the Board, which is under the Ministry of Education, gave the assurance at a meeting with the GJA General Secretary, Bright Blewu, on Tuesday. The meeting was at the instance of Mr Adjei who said he had requested it in response to the deep concern expressed by the Association, over the mushrooming of unaccredited media institutions in the country at the GJA emergency general meeting held on March 13, 2009. The GJA emergency meeting agreed that the Association’s national secretariat should liaise with its regional branches to compile the list of institutions running journalism and media-related programmes in their regions. This will be forwarded to the NAB for clearance and the police will be ordered to carry out the closure of all such institutions without accreditation. Mr Adjei said by the NAB’s records, there were currently, only eight such institutions with accreditation. They are Ghana Institute of Journalism, which offers both a Diploma and BA in Communication Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, which runs a Graduate Diploma and MA in Communication Studies and the National Film and Television Institute, which runs both diploma and degree courses in various aspects of cinematography and television production. The rest are Jayee Institute in Accra, which offers both a Diploma and a BA Journalism programme, the African University College of Communication, which also runs both a Diploma and a BA Journalism programme, University of Education, Winneba, which offers a BA in Media Studies, the Institute of Business Management and Journalism, Kumasi, which offers a Diploma in Journalism programme and the Christian Service University College in Kumasi, which runs a BA Communication Studies programme. Mr Adjei advised media organizations who received requests from media training institutions for students to do internship to seek clearance from NAB if they were not sure of the status of those institutions before granting that request. The GJA is in the process of compiling the list of media training institutions in Ghana to be presented to the NAB soon for action. Source: GNA