Over 70% infrastructures in varsities, others, comprise TETFund executed projects —FG

 

THE Federal Government has disclosed that over 70 per cent of infrastructures in most public tertiary institutions across the country constitute projects executed by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

 

Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, made this known during the study tour of the 32nd Class of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, the capital of Plateau State, where he charged the participants to think outside the box in their area of focus to support national development effort.

Adamu noted that in the last three years, more than 40,000 lecturers in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education have been sponsored by TETFund both at home and abroad to acquire higher education qualifications and skills.

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The Minister was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Sonny Echono, while the participants were briefed on the activities of the Federal Ministry of Education as well as the policy direction of the current administration towards addressing the challenges besetting the education sector.

The minister said plans were underway for a major policy shift that would see to the establishment of more tertiary institutions by the Federal Government in the months ahead.

He said as government envisaged this potential expansion in the number of institutions, it was also considering ways of dealing with the issue of availability of quality lecturers to man the institutions.

“We want to see how we can mobilise even captains of industries, professionals and technocrats that have already demonstrated their competencies in their various fields and to encourage them to go back to our university system to lend their experience and to assist the traditional lecturers in those institutions in building up our human capital,” he said.

He commended NIPSS for the innovation of bringing participants of the course out of the classrooms instead of keeping them in Kuru for four weeks in order to get theoretical insights and then go back to their institutions.

“I urge you, think beyond the box, look beyond your immediate sector and look at the various linkages that occur within the various sectors of our government in deciding how best to develop our country,” he stated.

The minister lamented over the backlog of applicants who were unable to secure admissions every year,  saying “every year 1.6 to 1.7 million Nigerians apply for admission into our tertiary institutions and currently we are hovering between 600 and 700 thousand that get admissions into either our colleges of education, polytechnics or our universities.

“And that is why this government has adopted a multifaceted approach to expanding access to tertiary education. We are encouraging the registration of private institutions to complement government’s effort,” Adamu said.

The Managing Consultant of NIPSS, Asipita Umar, said about 40 participants of the institute were participating in the 2018 course which focused on reviewing policy issues related to tertiary institutions management policy framework.