Economy of a nation is as strong
as the education development of that nation. Nations should must therefore
invest massively in the Human capacity develop of those working toward our
education development.
This position was disclosed by
the Chairman, Tertiary Education Fund, Prof. Solomon Elias Bogoro during the NIMechE’s 27th International Conference held in Bauchi,
recently.
Prof. Suleiman Elias Bogoro disclosed
that funds intervention on academic and staff training and development in
Africa is among the best in the world. He said no fewer than 10,363 members of the
academic and non-academic staff of public institutions in the country has been
trained by Tetfund between 2010 and 2014 including polytechnics and colleges of
education respectively. He said that 1,633 doctorate degree holders were
trained abroad while 3,041 were trained in the country.
In his lecture, titled ““Capacity
building and infrastructure development in Nigeria: The Tetfund intervention in
Nigerian public tertiary education institutions”” delivered in a fully packed
Hall of Zaranda Hotel Bauchi, Prof Elias noted that the economy of any nation
would only be as strong as the education development of that nation. Further,
he recall that the infamous Slogan “Brain drain” crept into national
consciousness in 1990s when ASUU went on strike for extended period over its
demand for improved funding n the Nigerian universities. Many of our talented
university lecturers and experts, began to move out of the country for greener
pasture in a bid to make end meet as well as enjoy competitive advantage at the
countries which are able to support them. The result was massive emigration of
our eggheads to other lands.
Over the years the country
responded to the challenges by creating different agencies and organization to
address the challenges facing the nation in its bid to boost its education
development and support the institutions involved. He mentions UBEC 2011 Act
was established to grant legal bite to this effort.
Since 2013, the TETfund has
increases its funding activities to in sponsoring research and publications in
the country. However, he regretted that some tertiary institution heads have
been mismanaging the funds which are ordinarily granted for research and
rehabilitation. He stressed that the Fund has focused on Development,
Rehabilitation and Intervention in Research in recent times.
Part of its recent activities is
the approval of the 5 year plan on academic research and improvement. The Funds
created department RID and Centre of Excellence (CIE).
The investment in RID is
necessitated by the reality that it is the driver of modern economy. Professor
Elias enthused that due to Science and Technology serving as the bedrock of the
RID, the engineering profession is expected to play critical roles in
infrastructural development. However, he regretted that most tertiary
institutions depend on the fund for infrastructural development, saying that,
“when you visit any institution over 90 percent of the structures are as a
result of Tetfund interventions.
He concluded that TETfund is the
transformational fence for our nation’s capacity Building and urge stakeholders
to join hands in its success.
“We have identified a number of thesis and development into books in order to encourage book publication. We will continue to do everything to encourage book publication. Our mandate as an intervention agency is to fill the gap of what is lacking in Nigerian public institutions… Prof Elias Bogoro”
