By JOHN ONAH, Abuja –
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) has sponsored a total of 30,000 lecturers for master’s and Ph.D. programmes in both local and foreign institutions in the last ten years.
Executive Secretary of TETFund, Professor Suleiman Bogoro, disclosed this in Abuja yesterday, at the 10th anniversary of the Fund.
According to him, “In a conscious effort to support the capacity of lecturers in public tertiary educational institutions, the Fund created the Academic Staff Training and Development Programme.
“To date, the Fund has sponsored close to 30,000 lecturers for master’s and Ph.D. programmes in both local and foreign institutions.”
Bogoro said since inception, TETFund has also been providing support for Teaching Practice in Federal and state Colleges of Education across the country, saying that the Fund has so far, supported over 71,263 lecturers under its Teachers’ Supervision Programme.
“Considering the vital role that libraries play in educational institutions, TETFund has also allocated substantial funds to public Federal and state Tertiary Institutions for the acquisition of library books, e-library resources and academic manuscript development to books in order to promote and support research, teaching and learning.
“So far, the Fund has procured over 2,080,041 books for use in the libraries, 152,844 E-Resources and 380,778 equipment and furniture distributed across public tertiary institutions in Nigeria. I am pleased to inform you that upon recommendation of the Hon. Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved that TETFund complete the National Library which symbolizes institutional repository of knowledge and research globally,” he said.
He noted that the Fund remain committed to its core values which include democratic decision-making and management style; respect for human and socio-economic rights of all staff; transparency and accountability; originality, creativity and pursuit of excellence and efficiency; respect for the view-point and interest of government, tax payers, beneficiaries and other stakeholders; belief in wide-scale consultation with stakeholders; promotion of transparency and accountability by the beneficiaries of TETFund among others.
He said the main ambition for the future includes “To champion the establishment of a National Research and Development Foundation (NR&DF) for Nigeria, in order to make Nigeria’s economy more competitive in all spheres through sustainable funding and management, institutionalization of the Triple Helix Model which will culminate in the alliance of the academic, the private sector and the government for a knowledge-driven economy, iImproving the ranking of universities in particular and the other beneficiary institutions in Nigeria through deepening research, building manpower capacity of the academia and enhancing research infrastructural base,” amongst others”.
Bogoro said as the it mark 10 years of impactful transformation of public tertiary educational institutions, it will ensure resolute commitment to continuously contribute positively to making public tertiary educational institutions in Nigeria truly globally competitive and to the overall economic and technological development of the country.
Also speaking, the representative of the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, Arch. Sonny Echono, the permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, commended the Fund for the solid foundation that successful leaderships have been able to lay, while reiterating the ministry’s continued support to the Fund.
Earlier, the governor of Kebbi state, His Excellency, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu commended the Fund for making good use of its funds over the years.
He reiterated the need for greater funding in the education sector.
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