The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has introduced collectively heads of beneficiary establishments, chairmen of governing councils and bursars of tertiary establishments to deliberate on sustainable funding, infrastructure growth, digital transformation and improved administration of intervention initiatives in Nigeria’s larger schooling sector.
The discussions fashioned a part of a two-day strategic engagement organised by the Fund to evaluation its intervention programmes, assess challenge implementation and develop a framework for the 2027 disbursement tips.
Speaking on the assembly, TETFund Executive Secretary, Arch Sonny Echono, stated the annual engagement offered a possibility for stakeholders to evaluation present interventions, determine challenges and agree on priorities for the next 12 months.
He stated that the assembly, normally held between October and November, enabled the Fund to acquire suggestions from beneficiary establishments earlier than finalising its disbursement framework.
“Normally, this engagement precedes the completion of our project cycle. It is an opportunity to emphasise the areas we want to introduce, the programmes and interventions we intend to retain, those that are no longer priorities or are not working effectively, and how they can be improved, modified or discontinued,” he stated.
Echono stated this 12 months’s engagement was significantly vital due to altering financial realities, the transition from the nationwide tax framework to the event levy regime and the anticipated results of the election cycle on authorities actions and funding.
He additionally recognized disagreements between governing councils and principal officers, significantly over procurement processes and the implementation of TETFund-funded initiatives, as points requiring pressing consideration.
According to him, bringing institutional directors collectively would promote understanding of their respective tasks and minimise conflicts able to delaying challenge execution.
On digital transformation, the Executive Secretary expressed concern over the gradual adoption of digital studying platforms offered by TETFund, regardless of the numerous assets invested in making them accessible to lecturers, researchers and college students.
He urged establishments to embrace technology-driven educating and studying, stressing that digital transformation was now not non-compulsory in trendy larger schooling.
“By now, we expect that over 60 per cent of your teaching staff should be competent in the use of modern modes of delivery. We should embrace technology and not fear it,” he stated.
He famous that digital platforms would allow establishments to undertake hybrid studying fashions, combining bodily classroom educating with on-line lectures and digital tutorial assets.
According to him, college students ought to have the ability to entry recorded lectures, studying supplies, movies and different instructional assets at their comfort, no matter their bodily location.
Addressing considerations about synthetic intelligence and tutorial dishonesty, Echono urged college directors to develop acceptable insurance policies and inner controls to forestall abuse whereas maximising the advantages of rising applied sciences.
“The challenge of the 21st century is how you re-engineer your internal systems and controls to be able to manage this technology, mitigate the moral hazards and also employ its advantages,” he stated.
He additional disclosed that TETFund was working in direction of the entire digitalisation of its intervention processes, together with functions, submissions, reporting and different administrative procedures.
The Executive Secretary stated the Fund had additionally offered entry to intensive digital tutorial assets, together with greater than 400 libraries and 1000’s of digital books, journals and analysis supplies.
He urged institutional managers to make sure that lecturers and college students made efficient use of the services, warning that failure to utilise the platforms amounted to a waste of public assets.
“We have lots of public funds which were expended to offer these providers, but additionally to take care of them. There are licensing charges for a lot of of those platforms.
“If we have them and do not use them, it becomes a waste of our national resources,” he stated.
On campus safety, Echono stated establishments should prioritise the safety of scholars and employees, noting {that a} protected studying surroundings was important to efficient educating, analysis and tutorial growth.
He linked campus safety to pupil lodging, explaining that TETFund had intensified efforts to help hostel growth by way of direct building and public-private partnerships.
He noticed that fewer than 50 per cent of scholars in lots of establishments lived on campus, exposing a big quantity to safety dangers related to travelling between their residences and campuses.
He, subsequently, urged establishments to develop lodging options that mirrored their peculiar wants and geographical circumstances.
On sustainable financing, Echono stated growing strain on public assets, inflation and rising building prices had made private-sector participation vital in delivering infrastructure and important providers.
“The private sector are not charity organisations. They exist to make profit. Therefore, we have to identify programmes and projects that are bankable and can attract private finance,” he stated.
He disclosed that TETFund had developed a framework for establishments fascinated by constructing pupil hostels by way of public-private partnerships, underneath which establishments would supply land whereas non-public traders would undertake building and administration, whereas expressing concern that the response from some beneficiary establishments had not been encouraging, urging vice-chancellors, rectors, provosts and governing councils to reap the benefits of the initiative.
He additionally inspired universities to discover industrial agriculture by way of partnerships with non-public traders, warning that leaving massive institutional lands undeveloped might expose them to encroachment.
Also talking, the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), Angela Ajala, appreciated TETFund for its sustained help, describing the intervention as vital to the event of the establishments.
She stated the Fund’s contributions had supported laboratories, lecture halls, analysis and employees growth, including that many faculties would have struggled to realize their accreditation and institutional growth targets with out the intervention.
Ajala harassed the significance of instructor schooling, warning that the failure to provide adequately educated academics would have severe penalties for the nation’s future.
“Without teachers, no society can survive. Every one of us sitting here has passed through the hands of a teacher. If our children and grandchildren do not receive quality teacher education, we risk producing adults who are inadequately prepared for the future,” she stated.
She additionally proposed stronger collaboration between the NCCE and TETFund on information administration, disclosing that the Commission had commenced coaching information officers from faculties throughout the nation on its web-based information system.
According to her, the platform would seize data on pupil enrolment, employees power, services and tutorial programmes to help evidence-based selections on useful resource allocation, urging institutional directors to make sure correct utilisation of intervention funds and full ongoing initiatives.
“Spend the funds allocated to you, complete the projects you have started and account for every naira as though your next allocation depends on it, because it does,” she stated.
Mallam Lawal Mohammed Faruk, Director of Research, Innovation and Information Technology on the National Universities Commission (NUC), who represented the Executive Secretary, Professor Abdullahi Yusufu Ribadu, acknowledged TETFund’s contributions to school growth throughout the nation.
He stated the Fund remained an vital companion in strengthening the college system by way of its varied interventions.
Faruk, nevertheless, emphasised the necessity for college directors to offer protected studying environments and satisfactory lodging for college students.
He additionally known as for the considered utilisation of intervention funds, stressing that assets allotted to establishments should translate into tangible enhancements in educating, studying, analysis and infrastructure.
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