TETfund Boss Reiterates Commitment To Quality Education
https://www.fearlessreports.com/2017/09/tetfund-boss-reiterates-commitment-to.html
Executive Secretary of Tetfund, Dr. Abdullahi Baffa |
Committed to improving global competitiveness in research and development in Nigeria, the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund), Dr Abdullahi Baffa has reiterated the commitment of his agency to ensure standard and quality tertiary education in the country.
Baffa said this during a Sensitization Seminar held for TETfund beneficiary institutions in the University of Calabar, (Unical), Hotel, Calabar.
Represented by Alhaji Umar Mari, the team leader, he disclosed that in the pursuit of achieving its objective, the funding agency tripled the 2016 intervention allocations for the various tertiary institutions against what was divulged in 2015.
While noting that two new intervention lines, project maintenance and ICT support were introduced, he added that the project maintenance is to enable institutions renovate dilapidated buildings while the ICT support is for the website upgrade of institutions and specialty training for both teaching and non-teaching staff to enable them attain computer proficiency.
The TETfund helmsman also said that in compliance with the recent decision of the National Council on Education that all public tertiary institution should include courses on inclusive education as part of their staff development for TETfund intervention, the agency has tasked beneficiary institutions to factor this decision in their proposals so as to remove barriers that prevent students with physical and learning disability from participating fully in education.
The Executive Secretary used the occasion to roll out the achievements of the fund over the years to include provision and improvement of physical infrastructure in all its 202 benefiting institutions from 2011 to 2017 and allocation of substantial funds to all tertiary institutions for the acquisition of library books and e-library resources for research, teaching and learning.
Other areas of achievements listed by him include the launching of the National Research Fund (NRF) in 2011 with a seed fund of 3 billion naira to support cutting edge research and massive progress in academic staff training and development.
Inspite of the well calculated interventions targeted to bring about a solid foundation for the educational future of Nigeria, the TETfund helmsman lamented that most of the institutions were not conversant with the agency guidelines or its intervention lines leading to poor access to intervention funds.
He said that the sensitisation seminar was therefore aimed at enlightening and building effective collaboration with stakeholders with a view to improving access to intervention funds for the improvement of quality of education in Nigeria.
In his welcome address, the vice chancellor, Prof Zana Akpagu lauded the management of TETfund for the initiative to hold the sensitisation seminar and express the optimism that beneficiaries will utilise the benefits that comes with the meeting.
The Vice Chancellor who was represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor Admin, Prof Ndifreke Udonwa welcomed the TETfund team and called on them to take good advantage of the hospitality which the city of Calabar offers.
In an earlier remark, the Director of Academic planning, Dr Donald Bette Enu said the coming of the TETfund team will proffer solutions and provide answers to the several questions and problems often raised over the operations of TETfund.
The event was marked with the presentation of a copy of the TETfund guidelines by the team to the Vice Chancellor and presentation of papers by resource persons from the agency.
This is good to read but what is TETFund's problem that she has refused to include Non Teaching staff in her development plan? This group of Nigerians also work in Tertiary Institutions and have been battling with the best way of accessing funds to development themselves academically. Can TETFund include Non Teaching staff in the "Inclusive Education" development? Does TETFund feel that Non Teaching staff cannot undertake research like the Teaching staff? The funds managed by TETFund belongs to all of us and should be such that we all access it for development.
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