Advocating New Funding Mannequin for Tertiary Training, by Rahma Oladosu

Nobody can dispute it. Poor or insufficient funding of Nigerian ivory towers is likely one of the causes the Educational Workers Union of Universities, ASUU, continuously embarks on industrial actions, to compel the federal government to do the needful.

Perturbed by the extent of decay in Nigerian universities, ASUU has launched into no fewer than 16 strikes within the final 24 years. It’s nevertheless worrisome that successive governments have solely accorded scant consideration to aggressively funding universities within the nation.

About 5 to 6 many years in the past, Nigerian universities had been the toast of even foreigners. Residents of European and plenty of African international locations attended among the premier universities within the nation, a number of years after the nation’s independence.

These days, it will likely be simpler for a camel to cross via a needle’s eye than to seek out overseas college students on the College of Lagos, UNILag, or well-known Ahmadu Bello College, Zaria. Like its contemporaries – UNILag and ABU Zaria – the College of Ibadan and College of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, are actually a shadow of themselves.

Nigerian public universities, just like the lethal Ebola and Coronavirus, amongst different epidemics, are usually not solely ‘stigmatized’ by overseas nationals, however residents too. The Elite, politicians and most public servants enroll their kids and wards in costly personal establishments, within the nation.

Though, the federal authorities is seen to be paying a lip service in direction of accelerating the event of the nation’s college system, certainly one of its intervention businesses is filling within the hole.

Established in 2011, the Tertiary Training Belief Fund, TETFund, like I famous in an earlier article of mine, seems to be probably the greatest issues that has occurred to our tertiary schooling sector, lately.

The foremost intervention company for Nigeria’s tertiary schooling sub-sector, has persistently, and assiduously come to the help of ‘ailing’ universities, polytechnics and Schools of Training, CoEs.

TETFund has offered, and continues to be offering funds for infrastructural improvement throughout Nigerian greater establishments, because it was birthed over a decade in the past. The company, via its disbursement of annual analysis grants to Nigerian lecturers, boosted analysis actions in our universities, and polytechnics specifically.

In just about all the general public greater establishments in our land, tasks akin to hostels, lecture theatres, laboratories, and even Senate Buildings, amongst others, executed by TETFund are sights to behold.

The efforts of TETFund in direction of enhancing infrastructural progress and human capital improvement in Nigeria greater establishments is tremendously being catalyzed by the Training Tax Fund – whose proportion has remained paltry for years now.

That’s the reason, TETFund, for the umpteenth time, has emphasised the necessity for a brand new sustainable funding mannequin for tertiary schooling in Nigeria, as a way of curbing the incessant industrial actions by varied workers unions within the nation’s authorities tertiary establishments which were prevalent in the previous couple of many years.

Government Secretary, TETFund, Sonny Echono, made the decision in his deal with on “Sustainable Funding of Tertiary Training in Nigeria” on the event of sixtieth anniversary celebrations of the Nationwide Universities Fee, NUC. His phrases: “A brand new mannequin of sustainable funding for tertiary schooling in Nigeria is required. There are three elementary areas that should be addressed.

“The primary is the federal government funding, which is presently under the worldwide common and must be elevated and deployed in a extra clear method and higher managed. A rise in Training Tax to 3 % will deal with this crucial.

“The second is the College curricula. It wants a revamp to supply graduates who’re higher suited to the realities of the nationwide financial system, which is an financial system that can’t supply extra formal employment at current, however quite wants job creators. Devoted implementation of the Triple-Helix-Mannequin of presidency, tutorial and trade collaboration will upscale personal sector contribution and calls for, and in the end ship advantages to all.

“The third is for the nation’s universities to generate their earnings to enhance authorities funding. Our universities ought to be inspired and supported to hunt extra income sources by growing a variety of pathways and mechanisms, together with ventures associated to their core enterprise of schooling supply, analysis and companies akin to scientific medical services, agribusiness and consultancy companies that might be self-financing to generate surplus to the establishment and related initiatives.”

Recalling many suggestions, the TETFund boss mentioned: “Authorities ought to permit full implementation of the 2004 Universities Miscellaneous (Autonomy) Act, which empowers College Councils to take full cost of their operations and improvement; restrict its function to general coverage framework, regulation and the creation/strengthening of establishments akin to NUC, TETFund, Training Financial institution, Federal Scholarship Board and a College students Loans Board to deal with the multifaceted challenges of schooling; Proceed to supply scholarship and bursary for exceptionally gifted students and verifiable indigent college students based mostly on earnings ranges of fogeys and different discernable standards.”

It is going to be to the credit score of the federal and state governments if public universities established and funded by them turn out to be world class, with top-notch studying infrastructure. That may curb the churning out of half-baked graduates, with zero job expertise.

However first, the federal government and different essential stakeholders within the nation’s college sector, should speedily evolve a sustainable mannequin of funding our ivory towers. If solely they will summon the requisite political will to do the needful, then it is going to solely be a matter of time for the misplaced glories of our world class UNN, UNILag, UI and ABU Zaria, amongst different public universities, to be restored.

Rahma Olamide Oladosu is a Workers Author with the Economic Confidential