TETFund’s board approves 5-year vision for improved education quality
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) Board of Trustees has approved a five-year vision for the fund to improve academic content and quality to achieve excellence.
The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Prof. Sulaiman Bogoro, made this known at a one-day 2014 Joint TETFund/FIRS Interactive Forum at the University of Lagos.
The forum had the theme: “Impact of Strategic Partnership in the Collection of Education Tax’’.
Bogoro, represented by an official of the TETFund, Mr Oladipo Salau, said that the vision would run from 2014 to 2019.
He said that department of Research and Development as well as Centres of Excellence had been created in TETFund as part of the vision.
“Its main objective is to institutionalise research and development in tertiary institutions by supporting establishment and operations of research outputs in these institutions,” he said.
According to him, the impact of strategic partnership between TETFund and FIRS has resulted in an annual increase in allocation to benefiting institutions.
He noted that the number of benefitting institutions had also increased considerably over the years.
Bogoro said that 183 public tertiary institutions were currently benefiting from the Fund’s intervention as against 157 in 2010.
He said that allocation to each university grew from N303 million in 2010 to N912 million in 2014.
The secretary also said that allocation to a polytechnic rose from N183 million in 2010 to N581 million in 2014.
“The continued success of our intervention activities will continue to depend largely on proper project conceptualisation by benefitting institutions through wide range of consultation within the academic community.
“It will also be based on implementation, based on full compliance with due process.’’
The official said that, although TETFund would not dictate what beneficiaries should do with their funds, it would continue to insist that projects proposed for the utilisation of the intervention should relate directly to the core mandate of the institutions.
Bogoro said that inability of some institutions to adopt sound project management principles was a challenge faced by the TETFund over the years.
He described TETFund as the face of transformation agenda of the education sector, and gave the assurance that it would not derail in carrying out its mandate as an intervention agency to all the Nigerian public tertiary institutions.
In his remarks, the Chairman, Board of Trustees of TETFund, Dr Musa Babayo, said that the collaborative partnership between TETFund and FIRS had strategically improved the quality of education in Nigeria.
Babayo said that this was achieved through improved infrastructure, teaching and learning environment and research and book development.
“The collaborative partnership over the years is attributable to the strong institutional structures put in place by the management of the two agencies in order to overcome major challenges hindering the transformation of the nation’s public tertiary institutions.
“The increase in education tax collections in recent years was made possible by the positive attitude of the FIRS officers in ensuring that education tax payers remit their returns.
“In 2013, the Fund surpassed its target of N118 billion by recording a total of N279 billion,” he said.
He noted that this showed an increase of N161 billion over the target set for the year.
Babayo urged sustenance of the partnership existing between the two agencies.
Ajayi Bamidele, Coordinating Director, Field Operations Group, FIRS, appealed to all beneficiaries of TETFund’s intervention to ensure accountability and transparency in order to move the education sector forward.
Bamidele said that FIRS partnership with TETFund for the fifth time, in its quest to transform the tertiary education system, had yielded positive results. (NAN)