The National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) was established by decree No: 3 of 1989. The Governing Council of the Commission was inaugurated o 19th April 1989 by the then minister of Education Professor Jubril Aminu Among other things, the Commission was set up to:

• Coordinate all aspects of teacher education programmes which fall outside Universities and Polytechnics;
• Lay down minimum standard for all programmers of teacher education and accredit their certificates and other academic awards;
• Approve guidelines/setting out criteria for accrediting Colleges of Education in Nigeria;
• Lay down standards to be followed and continually review such standards,
• Collate, analyze and publish any information relating to teacher education in Nigeria.

To this end, the Commission laid down Minimum standards for the Colleges of Education to follow as from 1991. This is periodically reviewed to meet up with the challenges in teacher education.