Funmi Lawrence
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has sought the support of heads of tertiary institutions for its impact assessment project towards ensuring quality education at all levels.
Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, Executive Secretary of the fund, made this known on Thursday at a one-day meeting of the fund’s Technical Advisory Committee on Impact Assessment (TACIA) with heads of beneficiary institutions.
Bogoro, who was represented by Mr Ifiok Ukim, Director of Strategic Planning and Development in the organisation, said that the committee’s work would significantly increase the capacity of the institutions.
“The purpose of this meeting is essentially to solicit support for the impact assessment of both the former Education Trust Fund (ETF) and TETFund interventions covering the period 1999 to 2018.
“The monumental decay in the education sector at the various levels led to agitation by ASUU for government to address the situation culminated in the establishment of the then ETF in 1993.
“ This brought about the imposition of two per cent education tax on companies operating in Nigeria for the ETF to manage and disburse to all the levels of education between 1999 and 2010.
“In 2011, the fund was refocused to intervene in public tertiary institutions defined by the TETFund Act 2011 as public Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education because ETF was overburdened and overstretched,” he said.
Bogoro added that the decay and dilapidation of facilities, however, did not abate as the funds were thinly spread.
He explained that in the 20 years of its interventions, the fund had never presented itself for self-evaluation which prompted the setting up of the committee to look at progress report of the institutions.
“The impact assessment which we are about to undertake is a contemporary phenomenon for reviewing and assessing progress made by any organisation is important to the fund.
“It would reveal the strength, weaknesses, progress, challenges and windows of opportunities for it to improve on its service delivery to its beneficiaries,’’ he said.
He charged the committee to work effectively and submit its report on or before Nov. 29.
Meanwhile, Prof. Nazifi Darma, Co-Chairman, TACIA, said that the committee had constituted a 62-man team to provide a clear direction for the fund.
“Out of the 62 members, we selected 10-key technical members to look into technical issues affecting the institutions
“I also coordinated a team of seven members to look at the document provided by the fund for analysis,” he said.
Darma added that before 2015, the fund was operating without a strategic plan but on assumption of duty of Bogoro, a strategic plan was developed for clearer operations.
He promised that the committee would come out with effective outcomes that would strengthen the capacity of the fund in the research base.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the committee was selected by Bogoro on Sept. 11 to carry out impact assessment of Education Trust Fund interventions from 1999 to 2010.
It would also carry out Impact Assessment of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) Interventions from 2011 to 2018 and determine the levels of implementation of ETF/TETFund mandates and effectiveness, among others.(NAN)
