AS part of efforts to address shortage of qualified teachers, the Kaduna State government has appealed to the management of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to support the agenda of the state to expand access to teacher education in the state.
Kaduna State governor, Senator Uba Sani, made the call when he led a state government delegation on a courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc Sonny Echono at the fund’s headquarters in Abuja.
He particularly revealed that one of the things the state is doing is to find a way of providing more access to students who might want to go in for Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) programmes.
According to the governor, the state has already established a new campus of the state’s College of Education and that it requires intervention to be able to fast-track the development of the campus.
Uba Sani, requested for more intervention and support from TEFund in some of the very key institutions in the state, stating that he was also at fund’s headquarters to make more effort to ensure that interventions to institutions within the state are released sooner or later.
He appreciated the effort made by TETFund in ensuring that institutions are provided with essential infrastructure in institutions across the country, and in Kaduna, stating that he has been following such efforts even as a senator.
“While outlining the areas of need for the state’s institutions, the Kaduna State Commissioner of Education, Professor Muhammad Sani Bello, said all the state-owned institutions were in need of interventions,” he noted.
Bello said in order to provide more access to students who are willing to go in for the Nigeria Certificate Education (NCE) programme, the state has established a campus of the state’s college of education to accommodate them.
“Another area has to do with security. The Kaduna State College of Education, Gidan Waya, in the Southern part of the state has been facing a lot of security challenges due to lack of fencing and other facilities that will provide security for both students and staff of the institution. That also is an area we need intervention,” he said.
The Executive Secretary of Tertiary TETFund, Mr Sonny Echono in his response, revealed that a sum of N550 million had been disbursed as a special intervention to the Kaduna State College of Education, Gidan Waya, to enable the institution to tackle some security concerns.
He noted that the disbursement was beyond the normal allocations, adding that the fund also disbursed N500 million to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria for the completion of one projection, in addition to making it a centre of excellence.
According to him, the same amount was also given to Kaduna State University to complete some projects in its Kafanchan campus, adding that the Fund would expedite action to complete some projects in the university which earlier had challenges.
The TETFund boss assured the state government that one of the public tertiary institutions in the state would benefit from the TETFund special high impact intervention in 2024, after the cycle of six years since the state last benefited.
He further pledged to look into the appeal made by the state governor to assist the Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic, Zaria in expanding its programmes through the building of a faculty of agriculture.
“This year already, we made some special allocation beyond the normal allocations that all institutions get. ABU Zaria for example, again, not only was it recognised as a centre of excellence, where we want to have a special centre in the area of education, but we also gave them some additional funds of about 500 million to complete one project.
“The same amount was also given to Kaduna State University to complete some projects in your Kafanchan campus. The College of Education you mentioned, that had an issue of security, I can confirm to you that in a matter of weeks ago, or some days ago, we released N550 million to them to address the issue of security; that’s the Kaduna State College of Education in Gidan Waya.
“There is a sequence that we designed for the special high impact projects on a zonal basis and I know the Hon commissioners have been following. So, I’m saying that next year should be the turn of Kaduna State. I will check and know it’s definitely either next year or the year after the special high impact will be in Kaduna.
“I think the last time we were there was in 2019 and we have a recycle of five years. We do it one per state. There’s equity in what we do here that when a state benefits from a particular zone, it goes to other states before it comes back to that state.
“Especially when we had the North West zone with the unfair decision of having seven states. So, what we try to do is to address that by limiting it to six to have some degree of parity. So that cycle I think Kudana State should be coming on board now for special high impact,” he said.
He described Kaduna as one of the states that the fund has enjoyed the most support, adding that Kaduna hosts the North West headquarters of TETFund, adding that it is not by accident as the state used to be the headquarters of the entire northern region of Nigeria.
According to him, the Kaduna state government allocated a very prime location for the fund’s headquarters with a building on it and that the contract for the construction projects will be awarded in the next one month.
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