The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) says it will begin indexing school students to ensure that institutions do not exceed admission quotas for engineering programmes.

President of COREN, Sadiq Abubakar, said this in an interview on Sunday in Abuja.

According to him, an education and accreditation department within the council will oversee the indexing of students and ensure that institutions only admit the number of students they can effectively handle.

He said the council would make oath-taking and induction of students after graduation mandatory, just like in the medical and pharmaceutical sectors, noting that engineering is ever-evolving.

“For us to monitor implementation and enforcement, students must be indexed. Just like in medicine, if you are not indexed, you will not be mobilised for NYSC.

“We are going to work hand-in-hand with them to enforce the posting of engineers for primary assignments. We have also spoken with the Director-General of NYSC,” Mr Abubakar said.

The COREN boss said the council would ensure that, whether in the public or private sector, the rules of dichotomies, regulations, and placement of fresh engineering graduates were well-defined in the civil service.

On the issue of quackery, Mr Abubakar said the menace was all about those outside the building industry claiming to be engineers.

“On the site, you have civil engineers, structural engineers, mechanical engineers, and electrical engineers; everything is correct.

“But when a civil engineer is carrying out the responsibility of a structural engineer, that is quackery.

“If you are registered, qualified, and up-to-date, but you are doing somebody else’s work, which you do not have competence in, that is internal quackery.

“We are going to translate lots of these to non-compliance, and it has come in handy in the issue of IGR and non-funding policy by the federal government,” he said.

According to Mr Abubakar, the best global practice is for a regulator not to be funded by the people it is supposed to regulate.

The COREN president said the council heartily welcomed the non-funding policy of the federal government, saying that it would give the council the force to regulate all the agencies in the building industry.

While allaying fears that it would mean higher charges for the registration of engineers, Mr Abubakar said the council would instead begin to enforce penalties for non-compliance, as in the case of internal quackery.

COREN was established in 1970 as a statutory body of the federal government with the mandate to regulate and control the education, training, and practice of engineering in all aspects and ramifications in the country.

(NAN)