TETFUND and Nigeria’s tertiary education.

RECENTLY, the picture of a lady writing her University of Lagos, MSc entrance examination in her wedding gown, went viral. It happened that the exam was shifted to the day of her wedding, a date that had been fixed months before. Whilst everybody saluted the tenacity of this particular bride in ensuring that nothing, not even her wedding, would stand in the way of her future dreams of earning a Master’s degree, something else caught the attention of this writer. The desk and bench on which the bride was writing her exams were boldly engraved with ‘Tefund Project 2012’. Then, it hit home. Tetfund does not only make the dreams of students, lecturers and  institutions come true, it was there for one of the most joyous days of this lady’s life. A question has been asked over the years. What would have been the fate of our tertiary institutions if  the Obasanjo administration had not had the wisdom to commence Education Trust Fund (ETF) which later morphed into TETFUND to take charge of the decaying infrastructure,  lecturers’ training and other sundry interventions in our universities, polytechnics and monotechnics?

It is on record that since inception, TETFUND has been  lending a helping hand to our tertiary institutions in ensuring that they turn out quality graduates year in, year out in an academic atmosphere conducive to learning. The interventionist agency also supports the lecturers in these institutions in honing their skills by giving out scholarships to those interested in acquiring higher degrees (mainly Masters and PhD degrees). It is on record that over 25 00 lecturers have since benefitted from the sponsorship scheme captured under TETFUND’s Academic Staff Training and Development (AST&D) Programme. The Fund, in advancing this noble cause, recently spent over N4 billion to give succour to overseas  scholars (some stranded since 2015), whose institutions did not remit their school fees and upkeeps on time.

Even though TETFUND is not at fault ( it always provide full remittance to the tertiary institutions once scholarships are granted), it had to intervene when the groanings of these scholars became louder and louder with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) stepping in  at a point, to air their grievances. The issue became an immeasurable embarrassment and brought untold opprobrium to the tertiary institutions, TETFUND and the Nigerian nation in general. Professor Elias Bogoro, the Executive Secretary (even though newly appointed) had to quickly seek for solutions to the impasse and today, close to 1000 cases of such have been sorted. Recently, TETFUND  commenced an ‘Impact Assessment’ of its interventions in the nation’s tertiary institutions. The assessment, which spans 20 years of  intervention, will cover all projects executed in all the institutions since the Fund’s  inception in 1999.

The exercise, driven mainly by the need to seek how impactful it’s projects have been on the these schools, also seeks to fashion ways of serving them better, going forward. At the inauguration of the Impact Assessment team, Professor Bogoro, who said the assignment which has the blessing of the Board of Trustees, charged the think tank to furnish a well thought out document that will serve as an ‘ institutional record as well as a reference point for future strategic plans.’ Responding, a member of the team and President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Biodun Ogunyemi,  averred that his union  was pleased to be part of the review and recommend exercise and that his members would always support the move that ensures TETFUND delivers on its mandate.

Another member, Dr Nazifi  Darma, in his remarks, noted that the the current 15 go-to  lines of interventions by the FUND would be subjected to a critical appraisal, and that the team in the course of its work, would if necessary, come out with other ways deemed germane to the overall objectives of the interventionist’s future activities. Going further,  Professor Emeritus Godwin Sogolo, yet another member, stated that the impact assessment is an idea ‘borne out of vision’ and that the assignment would largely record all the good works TETFUND has carried out over the years, which have been widely lauded. He also promised that the team would deliver on its mandate. TETFUND falls into the category of  forward-looking institutions that always seek ways of improving their overall performance.  The nation’s tertiary institutions, students, parents and the governments at all levels can only reap benefits from such commendable astuteness of a government agency intent on  securing the future of the Nigerian nation.

• Olakunri is a media practitioner and a public commentator.