New TETFund Boss Pledges Support For Curriculum Devt To Boost Graduates’ Quality

The newly-appointed Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, Arch. Sonny Echono, has said his administration will be focusing on helping relevant authorities in the nation’s tertiary sector develop an effective curriculum.

This, according to him, is one sure way to make Nigerian graduates not only relevant and employable, but also wealth creators.

Echono, made this known after he assumed duty at the TETFund national headquarters, in Abuja, on Monday.

Speaking after his predecessor, Prof. Elias Suleiman Bogoro, handed over to him, the new TETFund helmsman, promised to build on the solid foundation laid by Bogoro.

Echono, the immediate-past Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, promised to consult widely with critical stakeholders including ASUU and other staff Unions in tertiary institutions in pursuing the realisation of the mandate of the Fund.

The focus of such consultation, will, according to him, focus on feedback and evaluation of what TETFund has been doing, as well as how best to judiciously utilise the funds available to it.

He commended Bogoro for championing the paradigm shift in TETFund, while assuring that his administration would build on the solid foundation that has already been laid, especially in the area of promoting content development and research and development (R&D).

The new TETFund boss decried situations where scarce resources are used to train students that graduate for ten years looking for government employment verification, and “where they get, employers would say your graduates are not employable.”

He said there was the need to build a symbiotic relationship between the industry and academia to ensure seamless production of manpower needed to drive the nation’s economy and even produce in excess for export to other countries insisting that Nigeria has a comparative advantage for that.

He added that beneficiary institutions would be encouraged to leverage Information and Communication Technology (ICT), to improve curriculum delivery in the schools, saying when COVID-19 struck, it took everybody by surprise but the country was able to adjust with the help of technology as online teaching and learning platforms were promoted.

While assuring that staff welfare would be given priority, Echono told them that they have a lot of work to do to raise the bar, saying “We shall be having consultations with our critical stakeholders: Vice-Chancellors of Universities, Rectors of Polytechnics, Provost of Colleges of Education as well as staff Unions, ASUU, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), COASU (College of Education Academic Staff Union), and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) among others, for them to tell us which areas they want improvement.”