The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has expressed its disapproval of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund)’s plan to extend its project benefits to private universities. ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, conveyed this stance during a two-day interactive session between TETFund and all unions of beneficiary institutions in Abuja on Wednesday.
Osodeke argued that including private universities in the fund’s projects would result in the proliferation of private educational institutions that lack quality. He emphasized the need for TETFund to improve its project monitoring methods, pointing out that the performance levels of beneficiary institutions vary, yet some receive the same amount of funding.
Additionally, Osodeke called for sanctions against non-performing institutions and advocated for the abolition of what he referred to as “stakeholders fund.”
“ASUU will continue to embark on strikes until the right thing is done in our tertiary institutions. Stakeholders fund should be abolished,” Osodeke declared.
In response to ASUU’s concerns, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, explained that the interactive session aimed to proactively address the prevailing challenges in the education sector and ensure the steady growth and development of tertiary education.
Echono stressed the importance of engaging and challenging one another to enhance the quality of education in institutions. He highlighted TETFund’s primary mandate to rehabilitate, restore, and consolidate tertiary education in Nigeria through funding and project management.
The interactive session was also intended to serve as a platform to discuss and mitigate incidents of industrial disputes in the tertiary education sector and explore ways to prevent and avoid their occurrence.
Echono believed that this interaction would help identify issues of concern that could lead to addressing intervention areas in institutions and bridging gaps that have resulted in academic strikes.
Former President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, commended TETFund for its commitment to improving university education. He acknowledged the contributions of unions in tertiary institutions to the betterment of education in Nigeria and their resistance to the influence of neoliberal policies from successive governments.
Wabba emphasized the importance of uninterrupted teaching and learning and the need for an academic calendar that is not disrupted by industrial strikes. He noted that strikes by unions often aimed to improve teaching and learning conditions for both staff and students, highlighting the significance of platforms like the interactive session to find common ground on mutual interests and benefits in education.
