ABUJA – Prof. Andrew Efemini, a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy , University of Port Harcourt, on Tuesday in Abuja called for amendment of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund Act of 2011.
Efemini made the call during interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He said the amendment would address the problem of irregular funding of public universities in the country.
“If a percentage of funding is agreed to by stakeholders, such should be deducted directly from the federation account.
“The disparity in funding between federal and state universities will be addressed in this manner, ‘’he said.
Efemini said records have shown that most public universities depend on TETFUND for their capital projects and research.
He said that it was logical for TETFUND to be strengthened and institutionalised as the funding agency of public universities. [eap_ad_1] Efemini said that if the state and federal governments contributed their required share to TETFUND, the stability of public universities would be guaranteed.
He said that another advantage was that it would depoliticise funding of universities especially by state governments.
Efemini added that by so doing, ASUU and other union will not find the issue of funding of universities a major source of disagreement with government any longer.
“ I want to call for the amendment of sources of funding to include direct funding from both federal and state governments.
“This is in addition to the imposition of tertiary education task as currently recommended by the existing Act,” the don said.
He said the justification for amendment of TETFUND Act included monitoring and measuring how many resources passed from government to the universities accurately.
Efemini added that the NUC and other relevant supervisory bodies would be better placed to evaluate the funding of universities by federal governments.
He, therefore, called on Nigerians to support the amendment of the TETFUND Act. (NAN)
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