The Role of TETFUND in the Rehabilitation Restoration and Consolidation of Tertiary Education in Nigeria (a Case Study of UNN)
Chapter One
Objective Of Study
The following are objectives of this study:
- To examine the specific roles of TETFUND.
- To determine if TETFUND play a significant role in the rehabilitation and restoration of Tertiary education in Nigeria.
- To examine if TETFUD play a significant role in the consolidation of Tertiary education in Nigeria.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Development of Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria Leading to Funding Challenges
Education in Nigeria is more of a public enterprise that has witnessed government complete dynamic interventions and active participations. It is the view of the formulated education policy in Nigeria to use education as a vehicle in achieving national development. Education being an instrument of change, in Nigeria education policy has been a product of evolution through series of historical development1. The National Policy on Education in Nigeria was launched in 1977. The orientation of the policy is geared towards self-realization, individual and national efficiency, national unity, among others aimed at achieving social, cultural, economic, political, scientific and technological development.
The first institution for higher learning in Nigeria, ever to be organized with different departments located at one centre, was the Higher College, Yaba. It was established in 1930. Its first group of students, forty-one (41) altogether, was admitted in 1932. The foundation academic staff comprised the principal, eight European and two Africans. The different courses offered in the College were Agriculture, Commerce, Engineering, Forestry, Medicine, Secondary School Teacher Training, Surveying and Veterinary Science. It was the dream of the College’s founding fathers of the time when it will be possible for men and women to obtain at Yaba external degrees of a British tertiary institutions2. This wish never materialized, however.
The two different Commissions – the Commission of Higher Education in West Africa and the Commission on Higher Education in the Colonies – are of interest to this study. They were both set up by the British government, through the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Colonel the Right Honourable Oliver Stanley, in 1943. The Commission on Higher Education in West Africa was founded in June 1943.Its Chairman was the Right Honourable Walter Elliot. Its terms of reference were; ―to report on the organization and facilities of the existing centers of higher Education in British West Africa and to make recommendations regarding further tertiary institutions development in the area. The fourteen member Commission agreed on the need for the extension of higher education and of tertiary institutions in West Africa but disagreed on the number of tertiary institutions to be set up. Consequently, nine of the members – all the three West Africans inclusive – signed and issued majority report whereas the rest five members submitted a minority report. The former proposed the founding of three separate tertiary institutions/ colleges, one of which would be for Nigeria. The latter recommended the establishment of only one institution of University rank and should be situated in Ibadan, Nigeria. Interestingly, the two reports, submitted in June 1945 favoured Nigeria3.
The Commission of Higher Education in the Colonies was set up in August 1943. Its members were Mr. Justice Cyril Asquith (Chairman), and sixteen others. The Commission was set up essentially to consider the principles which should guide the promotion of higher education, learning and research, and the development of tertiary institutions in the colonies; and to explore means where by tertiary institutions and other appropriate bodies in the United Kingdom maybe able to co-operate with institutions of higher education in the colonies in other to give effects of these principles. Three of its recommendations were; setting up tertiary institutions, as soon as possible, in areas not served by an existing tertiary institution; taking the first step of founding tertiary institution/colleges; and the establishment of an Inter-University Council for Higher Education in the Colonies. The Commission submitted its report in May 1945.There are some important efforts worthy of note first, the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission on Higher Education in West Africa and the Commissionon Higher Education in the Colonies. Second, the huge amount of money, one million, five hundred thousand pounds (1500000) was made available by the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund. These marked the process of bringing tertiary education into the country4.
The Inter-University Council for Higher Education in the Colonies recommended that the Yaba Higher College be transferred to Ibadan. The Council’s five – man delegation, led by Sir William Hamilton – Fyfe, was in Nigeria in December 1946. It ensured the successful establishment of the University College. On 8th May, 1947, the Secretary of State for the Colonies appointed Dr. Kenneth Mellanby as the principal – designate of the University College, Ibadan. He arrived in the country on 13th July, 1947. He took over the higher college, Yaba, and made arrangement for its transfer to Ibadan. The Higher College, Yaba, which started in 1932, thus lasted for just one and a half decades. In December 1947, the Higher College, its furniture items, equipments, fixtures and fittings, one hundred and four students, library of some ten thousand volumes and staff was moved to Ibadan and became the nucleusof the University College, Ibadan. Academic activities started at the University College, Ibadan, in January 1948. Thirteen members of staff taught the first set of students numbering one hundred and four, studying intermediate science, surveying, teacher traning programme and intermediate arts. In February 1948, the London University began the operation of its special relationship scheme with Ibadan.
In April 1959, the Federal Government appointed the Commission on post-school certificate and Higher Education in Nigeria. It was ―to conduct an investigation into Nigeria needs in the field of post-school certificate and higher education over the next twenty years‖. The nine – memberCommission comprised Sir Eric Asby (Chairman), two other British, three Africans and three Nigerians. Professor Fredrick Haribison, a renownedeconomist, was one of the five experts who rendered invaluable assistance to the Commission5.The Commission recommended, in part, that tertiary institution development should be planned in a way that the student population would not be less than 7,300 by 1970, with a noticeable increase beyond that figure during 1970 – 1980 periods. It advised the Nigerian government to give full support to the growth of the new University of Nigeria, Nsukka and take steps towards the creation of a tertiary institution in the Northern Region with its’ headquarters at Zaria, the other at Lagos. A member of the Commission, Sanya Onabamino – the Honourable Minister of Education, Western Region – expressed a reservation on the report of the Commission. According to him, the Western regional government should have its own tertiary institution.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The research design adopted for the study is the cross-sectional survey design Where the study describes “the present state of affairs” (Sambo 2005; Yakubu 2018). The study involved the collection of data from samples in order to make inferences on a prevalent condition or situation (TETFund Interventions). It covered all government owned tertiary institutions in Enugu State that accesses TETFund Interventions and these institutions include: 1) Enugu State University 2) Enugu State Polytechnic, 3) Enugu State College of Education and 4) Michael Okpara Federal University of Agriculture Umudike.
Population of study
The population of the study comprises of teaching and non-teaching staff. The population of the staff is 5247.This study used a cluster sampling technique; each of the tertiary institutions were made a cluster. The sample of staff in the study is three hundred and sixty-five (365) which were drawn from the staff population of the four government tertiary institutions in Enugu State, Nigeria.
Data collection
The instrument used in the study is a self-designed structured questionnaire tagged TETFund Interventions on Staff, Infrastructure Development and Improving Quality Education Questionnaire (TISIDIQEQ). This is supported by Best and Khan (1995) who noted that questionnaire is used when factual information is desired from different respondents. The questionnaire consists of two sections: A and B. Section A requests for the respondent bio data, while section B is sub-divided into 5 sections (A-E) containing 30 items.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
The total number of questionnaires dispatched was 365, but 358 were returned, representing 98% of the distributed questionnaires. The questionnaires were distributed among teaching 203staff (57%) and 155nonteaching staff (43%). Figure 1 shows the educational qualification of respondents which represent 2% NCE ,7% HND, 29% B.Sc, 36% M.SC and 26 Ph.D .
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This study assesses the influence of TETFund interventions on staff development and infrastructure facilities, and how it has improved quality tertiary education in Enugu State. From the outcomes of the study analyses, it was concluded that TETFund interventions has significant impact on staff development through training, conferences, workshops and seminars locally and overseas in tertiary institution in Enugu State. The study also found that TETFund intervention has a significant influence on physical infrastructure development (lecture halls, hostels accommodation and offices). The implication of this is that the quality of educational output may have been increased because of TETFUND’s intervention in Enugu State tertiary institutions.
Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made.
- For competitive educational system that will attract foreign investments, TETFund should as a matter of urgency scale up her staff development interventions on training, conferences, workshops and seminars locally and overseas in tertiary institution in Enugu State. This will ensure that the staff of tertiary institutions will be function effectively in the discharge of their duties. Staff development is the bedrock for profitable educational outcomes.
Recommendations
Financing higher education in Nigeria today is a crucial national challenge. The political, social and economic factors, which are currently having significant impact on the world economy have necessitated the need to diversify the sources of education funding mainly because reliance on only one source (the government) of revenue can inhibit educational growth30.
The funding of tertiary education institutions in Nigeria needs to be improved upon. This is because of the increasing need and demand for specialized services in different sectors within the academic institutions. The financing of higher education can be improved from fees paid by parents, repayable loans to parents, local government taxes, general budgetary funds, gifts and remission of taxes, donations from NGOs among others31. In 1968, UNESCO remarked that in developed countries, education is entirely financed by taxation, but in developing countries other sources could be explored. Considering the foregoing, it is necessary to suggest other means of improving tertiary institutions in Nigeria with emphasis on the tertiary institutions in Owerri, Enugu State under study to suggest other means of improving education funding in the State as the following would be of help if adopted.
- Through public resources for education, quality and quantitative education could be raised from taxation. The resources raised therefore are used for the general purposes of government and funds for education are shared from a general pool of public revenue.
- External support is another way through which tertiary institutions in Owerri, Enugu State could have supplementary funding. This always comes in the form of financial assistance, grants, credits and loans. Due to paucity of funds for tertiary institutions, the Nigerian government has often sourced for loans/grants from foreign and international development partners. These are largely in form of bi-lateral and multi-lateral loans. As regards foreign grants, it is nowadays largely confined in the offer of scholarship for specialized training particularly at the graduate level outside the country sometimes it takes the form of technical assistance.
- The individual tertiary institutions in the study area could supplement their funding stream through the establishment of revenue yielding ventures/projects. Then, such projects/venture like bookshops, hotel and catering services, printing press, consultancy service among other things are veritable means of raising additional funds needed to enhance quality service delivery in Nigeria public tertiary institutions.
- The need for adequate funding of the tertiary institutions in the research area in the face of failing public resource allocation necessitated the recourse to the user of education (students) to contribute towards funding of their tertiary institutions. This could be in form of payment of school fess, development levy, caution fee (against the possibility of damage to school property), admission and registration and examination fees.
- The government should consider funding of education in Enugu State as a priority if the future of her citizens must be sustained. The government must as a matter of urgency and necessity adopt the 26 percent budgetary expenditure by UNESCO on education, rather than spend so much on policing and publicizing government programmes, funding of tertiary institutions specifically, must take its pride of place when planning the budget. Only through this gesture can illiteracy and other social vices/evils can be put in check through provision of quality education.
- The manager intertiary institutions in Owerri, Enugu State must be more prudent with the meager contributions of government, students and internally generated funds. The issue of corruption in the management of funds in tertiary institutions and high-handed of the Vice Chancellors, Rectors and Provosts, must be put to check. Hence, any staff found wanton in wasting funds through negligence or deliberate misappropriation must be dealt with in the full extent of the law. This will ensure that the little resources are prudently utilized to develop the much needed infrastructure and manpower with the educational system.
- The working conditions and staff welfare must be given adequate considerations to foster quality education. The theory of motivation confirms that inadequate salary, allowances, poor working condition among others will enhance workers dissatisfaction and eventually employee inefficiency and ineffectiveness. The staff of these tertiary institutions in Enugu State must be made to be comfortable with adequate salaries, available teaching materials, and consistent or regular promotions. The conditions of service and welfare facilities (housing, car loans, School for their children, insurance, health benefits) will help to motivate staff and boost employee morale. The long run effect of these provisions is the optimization of staff productivity and quality assurance.
- Accounts of TETfund should be audited twice a year. Although this is little unusual, however, it will help instill discipline in the management of TETfund. The first six months audit will be interim while the subsequent one will be final. The fraud(s) detected in the interim audit will be presented in the final audit.
- Independent corrupt practice and other Related Crimes Commission (ICPC) should always investigate corrupt activities in TETfund. This will help the management to be judicious with the resources of TETfund.
References
- D. Femi Melefa, 41 Years, TETFund Desk Officer National Headquarters Abuja, interviewed in his office in Administration and Procurement Department National Office Abuja, 19/6/2017.
- S. Abdu, – “The Cost and Finance of Education in Nigeria “Education Today Quarterly Magazine; June 2003, Vol. 10 (1); 12 – 16
- M, O, Akintayo, “Public Financing and the Problems of Access to University Education” in International Journal of Literacy Education. January – June 2004 2 (1-23).
- N, W, Ezenwo, Transforming education in Nigeria: Implication for the Future, the 20th Nigerian Economic summit Organized by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) at transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja 2014.
- Umar, D, Kambari, 46 Years, TETFund Desk Officer National Headquarters Abuja, interviewed in his office in Finance and Accounts Department National Office Abuja, 19/6/2017.
- Okebukola, Issues in Funding University Education in Nigeria. NUC Monograph Series,(Abuja, MUC Publishers, 2003).34-74.
