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Bukola Afeni
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) is urging all Heads of Beneficiary institutions to give its support to the impact assessment of both the former Education Trust Fund (ETF), and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) interventions covering the period 1999 to 2018.
The Executive Secretary TETFUND,Professor Suleiman Bogoro stated this at the meeting of TETFUND Advisory Committee on Impact Assessment in Abuja.
According to him, in order to carry out the impact assessment of TETFund interventions, the agency have carefully selected the best experts in Development work, Research and Scholarship.
“On the 11th September 2019, I inaugurated the TETFund Technical Advisory Committee on Impact Assessment (TACIA) comprising 62 (sixty-two) members including the leadership of ASUU. The Co-Chairmen of the Committee, Professor Nazifi Darma and Professor Placid Njoku are distinguished academics with lots of experience in development work.” “I have no doubt whatsoever that with the calibre of persons serving in the Committee they would deliver on the Committee’s mandate”.
He added that the monumental decay in the education sector at the various levels of Primary, Secondary and Tertiary led to agitation by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for Government to address the situation .
“This culminated in the establishment of the then Education Trust Fund (ETF) in 1993 by the Federal Government, and the imposition of 2% education tax on companies operating in Nigeria for the ETF to manage and disburse to all the levels of education between 1999 to 2010.”
The Executive Secretary said the Fund was refocused to intervene in public tertiary institutions defined by the TETFund Act 2011 as public “Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education” as the ETF was overburdened and overstretched.
“It could only render palliative support to all the levels of public educational institutions in Nigeria. The decay, rot and dilapidation of facilities did not abate as the funds were thinly spread. You will agree with me that with the focus on tertiary educational institutions, some meaningful progress has been made by the Fund over the years.”
Bogoro further added that since its (twenty) years of its interventions, the Fund had never presented itself for self-evaluation or examination.
” Impact assessment which we are about to undertake is a contemporary phenomenon for reviewing and assessing progress made by any organization”.
“It is important to the Fund as it would reveal the strengths, weaknesses, progress, challenges and windows of opportunities for it to improve on to ensuring quality education at our public tertiary institutions”.
