Babcock Schools Mgt Board Charges Govt on TETFund Review, Funding

The Chairman, Babcock University Schools Management Board, Professor Luke Onuoha has said that proper census of the needs of universities in the country by the government to support their programmes with adequate funding and the review of the current funding policies of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to include private universities are major recipes for moving the Nigerian education sector forward.

Onuoha, who made this known during the board meeting of the

schools in Lagos recently, stressed the need for

private universities to benefit from TETFund, saying that

these are institutions that have unbroken academic calendar

and also do their best to have good lecturers, quality

facilities and conducive learning environment.

“Students in these private universities whose parents also

pay huge taxes into the coffers of the government should not

be made to take huge fees burden without a fair help from

government.”

Onuoha said the free education is not meeting the test of

the time, adding that a proper audit to determine the actual

cost of education in Nigerian universities should be

conducted by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

“It would be appropriate for Nigerians to stop deceiving

themselves by having the mindset that education is free,”

he said, adding that private universities have proved that

parents can pay for value and have it.

He urged the government to do its part by providing the

necessary infrastructure for all universities in the country

and then involve the beneficiaries in an appropriate way

with part of the bills.

Other ways of moving the sector forward he said include the

need for vice-chancellors of universities to take a look at

the running of the faculties and departments demanding from

time to time a report of the progress of the students in

various programmes to know if they are satisfactory or not;

querying areas of abuse they discover and get them

corrected; universities should make clear regulations that

could protect students who challenge any injustice meted on

them by lecturers, among others.

He said as a result of the economic situation in the

country, the management puts parents into consideration in

its planning in order to ensure that keeping their children

in the schools is less burdensome with value for what

they are spending on them.

“We are intentional about students’ progress and

academic performance in all our schools and our policies are

the same. Our teaching and mentoring are so progressive that

parents see for themselves every day of contact with their

wards that more added value is present in their

children.”