By ABAH ADAH, Abuja
The Tetiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) has appealed to the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU) and other relevant players in the educational sector to continue playing the role of advising and promoting stability in the Nigerian university system.
The Executive Secretary, TETFUND, Arc. Sunday Echono gave the charge Thursday in Abuja when he played host to the committee who were in his office on a courtesy visit.
He said, “I want to state that over the years, the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities has remained a key player in the sector that render advice and promote stability in the university system.
“I crave your indulgence to continue to play this role, and to also look into the current challenges being faced in our Universities today with the view of proffering solutions for government and other stakeholders to adopt to restore normalcy in the education sector as well as promote the rebuilding and internationalisation of our university system.”
Echono urged that as government is making efforts on its part, all other players, including the private sector, should be involved in strengthening the system and building more universities to create more space for Nigeria’s teeming population.
On the request of financial support earlier tabled by the committee among other demands, the TETFUND boss disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the 2022 disbursement proposals and some guidelines.
He pledged to continue to work with the committee towards attaining academic excellence, especially in the area of ICT, constitute the second largest revenue earner for the country at the moment.
“We consider you as one one of our leading partners and that is why we are proud that we are collaborating with you on our current review, particularly in the area of leveraging ICT to improve the delivery systems for curricula in our universities.
“We pledge, not only to continue the partnership, but to also expand it; and we can assure you that we will continue to sustain the ongoing reforms with emphasis on the content component of our interventions, especially in the areas of research, ICT, promoting read culture and, in particular, digitisation of thesis on which we are already collaborating with you,” he said.
Lamenting the poor quality of thesis and graduates coming out of institutions of higher learning in the country, Echono said it is the believe of the fund that “the anti-plagiarism device you have developed will go a long way towards correcting this and ensuring compliance”.
He added that in working towards academic excellence, TETFUND now has a policy “that going forward, all proposals coming to us for support must go through your system and receive certification that it has passed the minimum standard required for authors and publishers to benefit from our support”.
He also pledged the support and participation of TETFUND at the celebration of 60th anniversary slated for October by CVC, themed: Sixty Years of Leadership in the Nigerian University System.
Speaking earlier, Chairman, CVCNU and VC, Niger Delta University, Prof. Samuel Edoumiekumo who on behalf of the group, felicitated with the Executive Secretary on his appointment almost two months ago, presented 7 demands bordering on way forward for higher education system in the country.
Review of the funding support to beneficiary institutions towards improving capacities of staff and students, building capacity of academic staff for generating content, embarking on professional certifications in current IT platforms such as cloud computing, front-end development, cyber security and data visualisation were among the 7 prayers presented before TETFUND.
Other Vice-Chancellors from both the public and private universities across the country were in attendance, either by person or proxy.