ASUU rejects private varsities’ inclusion as TETFund beneficiaries

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has kicked against the plan by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to include private universities as beneficiaries of its projects.

ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, made this known at a two-day interactive session between TETFund and all unions of beneficiary institutions in Abuja on Wednesday, October 11, 2023.

Osodeke said the move to include private varsities in TETFund’s project would lead to proliferation of private universities devoid of quality.

He charges the fund to work more on its project monitoring method, saying the level of performance by the beneficiary institutions are not in tandem as some of them receive the same amount of money.

He called for sanctions against non-performing institutions while also advocating for the abolition of what he referred to as “stakeholders fund”.

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“ASUU will continue to embark on strike untill the right thing is done in our tertiary institutions. Stakeholders fund should be abolished,” the ASUU President said.

On his part, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, said the interactive session was conceived as a proactive engagement against the backdrop of the prevailing challenges in the subsector.

Echono stated that the engagement was also for the purpose of sustaining steady growth and development of tertiary education.

He stressed the need to consistently engage and challenge one another on how best to improve the situation, saying: “It is our fervent hope that this interactive session will provide an enabling environment for us to understand some of our challenges and difficulties in the delivery of quality education in our institutions.

“Thereby making meaningful contribution to the successful execution of the objective of the fund.

“As you all know our primary mandate is to rehabilitate, restore, and consolidate tertiary education in Nigeria, using funding alongside project management.

“The session is also expected to serve as a platform to discuss and mitigate incidences of industrial disputes in the tertiary education sector and look at ways to prevent and avoid their occurrences.”

The Star