Conference attendance: We’ll recover money from indebted lecturer —TETFund boss

THE executive secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Sonny Echono, has insisted that all lecturers who collected money from the Fund for conference attendance but failed to embark on such exercise will be asked to refund the money.

Echono, however, said the earlier plan to sanction the affected lecturers had been reviewed while insisting that  the forthcoming conference being organised by the Association of Technical Universities and Polytechnics in Africa (ATUPA) offers an opportunity for all the affected persons to attend the conference as a remedy.

Echono spoke in Abuja during a courtesy visit by the Association of Heads of Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology in Nigeria, stressing that such lecture.

While commending the association for ensuring stability in the polytechnic sector, the TETFund boss harped on the need to mass-create innovation hubs and skills development centres in polytechnics to boost the employability of the graduates, adding that the Fund would ensure the desired support in that regard.

He said: “Everyone agrees that the jobs of tomorrow are not so much about certificates but the skills that you have. It is more of what you can do and the soft skills that you have such as critical thinking, creativity, and innovations.

“This is why we must consciously and progressively create innovation hubs in our polytechnics and the level of manpower that is required in today’s workforce.

“When I was in the ministry, there was a briefing about an earlier intervention by the TETFund to assist polytechnics and universities in supplying equipment intended to facilitate this, and the feedback we had was that most of them were not being utilised, and we were not even sure whether they were actually supplied.

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“We had to undertake an audit, and to our surprise, we discovered that the equipment was supplied. Unfortunately, while this equipment was lying idle in some of these institutions, in others, those who  were trained at the time had moved on.

“Meanwhile, we at TETFund have developed a follow-up programme in two tranches. The first is based on the new need of the workplace – that is, what are the additional equipment and facilities that these institutions will need with greater emphasis on the polytechnics first, because that is where the needs are very urgent.

“And secondly, the need for capacity-building and training. We will be approaching you to identify the officers that are directly involved in the operation of the equipment and  teaching the students these relevant subjects so that we can train them.”

On the request by the association for the review of the sharing formula of TETFund intervention funds in favour of polytechnics, Echono said : “The issue of the sharing formula is entrenched in the law establishing TETFund, so, it will require an amendment of the law to effect any change.

“In terms of special intervention, there are some inputs the board can make. However, globally, the trend now is towards skills, innovation and entrepreneurship.”

Earlier, the chairman of Heads of Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology in Nigeria, Mrs Olufunke Akinkurolere, had called for more favourable TETFund’s allocations to polytechnics, among other requests.

Akinkurolere, who doubles as  the rector of the Institute of Technology, Igbesa, Ogun State, noted also that: “running polytechnics are  more capital-intensive than other institutions. We, therefore, appeal that TETFund should reconsider the sharing formula on normal intervention to tertiary institutions to be favour of polytechnics.

“The new NSQF is an additional mandate given to polytechnics. There is the need for TETfund to assist in the development of skills acquisition centres in thé polytechnics through special intervention.

“The polytechnics are institutional members of ATUPA- a body that serves as an avenue for peer review and networking among polytechnics in Africa.

“Members of staff at the polytechnics are expected to attend their biennial conference to present papers and discuss other issues relating to TVET. We appeal for TETFund to allow polytechnics to utilize the funds allocated for training to sponsor our academic staff to attend the 2022 ATUPA conference.”