TEFfund rating a bad testimonial for academia in Nigeria —Don

That Tertiary Education Fund (TETfund) says 90 per cent of research proposals for it received was poor and therefore could not fund it, a past President, Ophthalmology Society of Nigeria, Professor Sebastian Nwosu said was a very bad testimonial for academia in Nigeria.

Professor Nwosu spoke at the official commissioning of the Sebastian Centre for Ophthalmic Research & Education (SCORE) and its maiden lecture entitled “Research & Continuing Medical Education in Today’s Nigeria” at Eleta Eye Institute Ibadan.

The don said the poor quality of the research proposals to the TETfund points to a deep malady in training in research methods, declaring that nine years after the fund was established, research activities are seen not to have improved in Nigerian tertiary institutions.

Professor Nwosu said although many educational institutions complain of  dearth of funds for research, eight years after TETfund established its National Research Fund with the sum of N3billlion, only N1.72 billion had been utilized thus far.

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While quoting TETfund, saying “90 per cent of the lecturers’ research proposals are very poor and unfundable,” he said National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria has also noticed the poor trend.

According to him, between 2012 and 2016, only 22 per cent of the dissertations assessed by the Faculty of Ophthalmology, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria passed.

“No candidate during this period satisfied the examiners at the first attempt. Interestingly, this finding is similar to the TETFund’s observation.

Failure in dissertation among other factors, reflect poor supervision. Poor supervision may be as a result of the supervisor’s deficit,” he said.

Professor Nwosu, who noted that SCORE at Eleta Eye Institute will go a long way to rectify this weakness, urged doctors to take more seriously Continuing Medical Education (CME) to update their knowledge and skills so as to ensure improved patient care.

He said this was imperative given the rapid expansion of knowledge and techniques that are quickly rendered established practice patterns obsolete.

A Professor of Food Technology and Chairman at the occasion, Charles Aworh, said the Federal government should critically consider establishing virtual centres of excellence like the Sebastian Centre for Ophthalmic Research & Education (SCORE) to move its education sector forward considering the nation’s limited resources.

Earlier, the group medical director, Eleta Eye Institute, Dr Benedictus Ajayi, said the centre to spearhead research portends a better future for eye care in Nigeria.

According to him, “We are not just going to take things from abroad and utilise, we are going to have homegrown research that will provide for the needs of our people.”