The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has unveiled 10 textbooks authored by Nigerian scholars.

The books which were TETFund-sponsored were aimed at reducing overdominance on foreign publications in the nation’s higher education institutions.

Speaking at the event in Abuja, Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, said the dependence on foreign academic publications portends great danger to the nation’s education sector.

Adamu added that boosting indigenous authorship would address the problem.

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The minister, who was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Nana Opiah, said: “The paucity of indigenously authored and produced tertiary level textbooks and related academic publications in the nation’s tertiary education institutions is a known fact overtime. Nigeria’s tertiary education institutions became dependent on books published outside the country with the attendant consequences of the pressure on the demand for foreign exchange.

“It is equally worrisome that the quality of most academic publications in our country leaves much to be desired. It is therefore expected that nurturing the culture of quality authorship and the production of indigenous books will not only ensure the availability of relevant books in the diverse subject areas that take cognizance of our local environment and sensitivities but will also safeguard national pride and reduce the demand for foreign exchange.”

He commended TETFund for establishing the Higher Education Book Development project to tackle scarcity of tertiary level textbooks which has before now reached a crisis proportion.

Adamu hailed the Fund for putting in place the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) whose mandate includes collaboratively working with the agency to ensure quality books are churned out by Nigerian authors.

Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, who expressed delight over the quality of the 10 books, said additional 30 books sponsored by the Fund would be unveiled before the end of the year.

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He noted that the agency would sponsor production of 50 textbooks in 2023.

“We have over 66 manuscripts. What we are unveiling today were published by only one publisher (one printing press). By the time we unveil the remaining 30 books in December, you are going to see all the authors cut across the three layers of our tertiary education institutions,” Echono said.

The TETFund boss also revealed that the Fund has provided support to ensure all the Academic Publishing Centres in the country become fully operational.

On his part, Chairman of TETFund TAG, Prof. Charles Aworh, said 20 TETFund-sponsored textbooks were published in 2014 on different fields with wide acceptance from within and outside the country, adding that three of the 10 new books unveiled today were from PhD theses.

He, however, called for more empowerment of the nation’s publishing centres.

“We are on course to publish 40 books before the end of the year but the only challenge is the capacity of our universities to publish. Authors are ready to publish, manuscripts are ready,” Aworh said.

High point of the event, which also attracted authors, academic staff unions and heads of education agencies, among others, was the public presentation of the TETFund-sponsored books which include; 1. Principles of Veterinary Surgery: A Concise Text for Veterinary Students. 2. Fundamental of Chemistry. 3. Fundamentals of Public Finance 4. Java for Beginners and Web Design and 5. Programming for Beginners.

Others are 6. The Comparative Method and Civil – Military Relations. 7. Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics for Engineers. 8. A Guide to Teacher Competence Evaluation. 9. Financial Deepening and Economic Growth in Nigeria and 10. Motivational Factors and Teachers Efficiency in Secondary Schools.

The Star