The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary EducationTrust Fund, (TETFund) Arc. Sonny Echono has disclosed that some state governments after establishing universities abandon their responsibilities to TETFund.
Echono who was speaking during a visit of the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed to TETFund, explained that although the agency had the core mandate of providing funding for public educational facilities and infrastructural developments across the country, some governors establish new tertiary institutions and leave the responsibility of funding them solely to TETFund.
“Unfortunately, there are some of your colleagues who have almost abandoned their responsibilities to their schools. And when they establish institutions, they look forward to only TETFund to help them fund them,” he said.
Echono, who however stated that it was not the case in Bauchi State, lauded the state government’s effort and investment in education.
“But this is not the case in Bauchi. Each time we go to Bauchi to commission TETFund projects, we are impressed to see the complementary infrastructure,” he said.
He pledged the Fund’s support for the newly established college of education and efforts made by the state government to train technical manpower.
Earlier while stating the reason for his visit to TETFund, the Bauchi State Governor, Mohammed pleaded for support from the Fund for its state-owned institutions to train technical manpower in agriculture, oil and gas and other fields critical to national development.
He noted that the state requires support for its newly-established College of Education, Technical, as well as intervention on vocational training, where artisans: craftsmen, bricklayers and welders will be trained.
Mohammed explained that the college of education will train agricultural officers that will teach the people of the state how to farm, plant and raise productivity, adding that his government has provided infrastructure in the state university worth over N3b to ensure the institution has good roads, water and other amenities.
“We need a lot of assistance from you immediately to put our educational sector on the face of prosperity and growth? And we have really established the institutional framework, the policy thrust and the big political will to be able to leapfrog the area of education so that we can be producing our own human capital needs and even export labour.
“We want to have technicians, some labour that is required in the field. In the agricultural field, we want people that will be teaching our farmers what to do in terms of what to do during farming season and so on. And so, we need your support because you did not know about the establishment of this new technical institution, but for our state university, our colleges of education and others you have done so much,” he said.
Some State Governors Abandon Responsibilities For TETFund, Echono Says is first published on The Whistler Newspaper