In 1957, the sponsorship of the College was, however, turned to an independent body; the African Christian Schools Foundation (ACSF) board of trustees, a non-profit private corporation based in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A. In 1958, this agency managed primary and secondary schools in Nigeria. The ACSF still has its corporate headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A.

It should be noted that classes to prepare students for external GCE (General Certificate in Education) was added in 1983. In 1984, this GCE preparation program developed into a full-fledged vocational/commercial Secondary School. The College ran a high (secondary) school program which had no close rival until 1997 when the ACSF board saw the need to discontinue in the venture; probably to exert more of their resources in the development of the ministerial and tertiary programs to meet the country’s prevalent educational needs. And from here, plans for a University program developed and the pilot projects led to an Associate of Arts degree programs.

However, in 1986, in order to better fit the Nigerian educational system, the College applied for an affiliation with the University of Calabar. And thus in 1988, the Senate of the University of Calabar approved the College’s affiliation application to offer a Diploma in Religious Education. Not fewer than two hundred students enrolled and completed this three year program of studies. And some of the graduates of this program are serving the government in various public and private primary and secondary schools across the country. Some of the graduates of the program have used this to pursue degrees in education and in other social studies. There are records of some of these graduates having Master’s Degrees and some Ph.Ds in various disciplines. The application for the upgrading of the Religious Studies program to a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree status was approved by the senate of the University of Calabar at its 129th meeting held on November 16, 2000.

It is equally gratifying to note that because of the need to update the skills of our graduates who had virtually little or no teacher training background, the College equally sought and applied for an affiliation with the Rivers State College of Education to offer courses leading to the award of Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) towards the end of 2003.

Having been granted the approval, the college mounted courses in five broad departments, which eventually attracted a hundred of students who enrolled and completed their courses for the award of their NCEs. These graduates are equally now spread across the country and abroad either teaching in private and public nursery/primary/secondary schools or are engaged actively in preaching the gospel; some are currently furthering their studies for various degree programs across the country; while some have already graduated and are gainfully employed.