Stop Playing Politics with Education, TETFund Boss Tells State Govts
Daji Sani
The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, has cautioned state governments to stop playing politics with education by establishing tertiary institutions that they cannot cater for.
Bogoro, who said this in a chat with journalists in Yola, regretted that most state governments are not committed to funding state-owned tertiary institutions but leave the fund- ing to the federal government.
“Tertiary institutions should be established when the owner has the capacity to fund them. We should stop playing politics with education.”
He stated that between 90 to 95 per cent of infrastructure in many state owned tertiary institutions were provided by TETFund making one to wonder who own the institutions.
He also called on the federal government to ensure full release of money budgeted for its tertiary institutions, pointing out that last year for instance, over N300 million was appropriated for capital projects for University of Ibadan but it ended up getting only N50 million, an amount he said would not be enough even for basic maintenance.
“We are by law an interventionist agency, we are not supposed to be the main but ironically, we have become the main. We are saying if annual appropriated capital commitment is utilised to the level of pronouncement every year it will go a long way in supplementing TETFund.”
Bogoro said effort is being made for upward review of the two per cent tax collection for the fund to four per cent, adding that if that happens, TETFund’s intervention would improve. He said about 12,000 lecturers in the country have been sponsored by the fund to further their education within and outside the country.
He added that so far, about 7,000 of the sponsored lecturers have completed their studies abroad and have returned to the country.
He urged tertiary institutions to implement the policy of retaining their first class graduates, saying that the fund is committed to sponsoring such graduates as lecturers to further their education in the best universities in the world.
Bogoro, who was in Yola to commission the Academic Publishing Centre (APC) of Modibbo Adama University of Technology (MAUTECH), built by TETFund, said such centre would be established in the six geopolitical zones and Abuja to promote reading and writing culture.
“I am so happy to be here being the very first to be competed. We will provide printing facilities; we are going for the very best in the world.”
Bogoro who reiterated the fund’s commitment to massive intervention in upgrading public tertiary institutions, said the poor rating of Nigerian institutions is unacceptable.