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Malawi¡¯s government has announced plans to form a new government body to crack down on fake degrees and qualifications.

Foreign minister Emmanuel Fabiano, who was minister of?education, science and technology before a recent cabinet reshuffle, announced that he and fellow cabinet ministers will table a?bill?seeking to form a Malawi Qualifications Authority to oversee the regulation and standardising of all qualifications awarded by universities and colleges.

If passed, the new body will facilitate the development of an accreditation system for degree certificates awarded by universities and work to eliminate unrecognised and fake certificates.

Dr Fabiano said that the bill¡¯s enactment would ensure quality assessment of examinations so that qualifications offered are of required standards.

Dr Fabiano, who made the announcement at the opening of the 11th Annual Conference of the Southern Africa Association for Education Assessment, added that the new authority would offer competition to qualifications tasks currently performed by the?Malawi National Examination Board, reported.

¡°The?Malawi National Examination Board?will have to live a life of having a competitor over a number of candidates,¡± he said. ¡°As government, we believe that the competition will be good for service delivery.¡±

john.elmes@timeshighereducation.com