AFTER 2o years of interventions, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) is set to measure the impact of its interventions in Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions,Suleiman Bogoro, Executive Secretary of the Fund said on Thursday.
Bogoro disclosed this during a one-day meeting with the TETFUND Technical Advisory Committee on Impact Assessment in Abuja.
Bogoro recalled how monumental decay of the educational sector at all levels led to the agitation of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for a solution by the Federal Government which resulted into the establishment of Education Trust Fund (ETF) in 1993.
Represented by the Fund’s Director of Strategic Planning and Development, Ifiok Ukim, the TETFUND boss noted that the fund was initially meant for intervention on public primary and secondary schools but was eventually refocused to intervene in public tertiary institutions through the TETFund Act of 2011.
According to him, the project has made meaningful progress in years but has never been put into assessment since its establishment.
“In the 20 years of its interventions, the Fund had never presented itself for self-evaluation or examination, impact assessment which we are about to undertake is a contemporary phenomenon for reviewing and assessing progress made by any organization,” he said.
“It is important to the Fund as it would reveal the strengths, weaknesses, progress, challenges and windows of opportunities for it to improve on its service delivery to its beneficiaries.”
He continued that the TETFund, is determined to maintain a status as one of the most visible, impactful and relevant intervention agencies that has become a model in Africa.
Bogoro explained that they have selected a 62 men committee of experts in development work, research and scholarship including the leadership of ASUU to be part of the assessment committee.
He added that the committee shall be Co- Chaired by Nazifi Darma and Placid Njoku who are distinguished academics with lots of experience in development work.
“I have no doubt whatsoever that with the calibre of persons serving in the Committee they would deliver on the Committee’s mandates,” he said.
Highlighting the task of the committee, Bogoro stated that it shall carry out Impact Assessment of Education Trust Fund (ETF) Interventions, from 1999 to 2010, carry out Impact Assessment of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) Interventions from 2011 to 2018;
The committee will determine the levels of Implementation of ETF/TETFund mandates and effectiveness, determine the achievements, challenges and weaknesses recorded and observed in the course of implementation of existing Projects, Programmes and Intervention lines of the Fund;
They shall also collate and analyse, selected speeches of past and present TETFund Executive Secretaries, annual/periodic publications and propose future direction of the Fund within the TETFund Statutory mandate as encapsulated in the TETFund Establishment Act 2011 among other obligations.
He however, gave the committee a deadline to submit the report of their findings on or before Friday, 29th November, 2019.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94