Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) among other stakeholders have rejected the move for the inclusion of private universities as part of the benefic.iaries of the trust fund. Also, the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) and the ‘Say No Campaign’ voiced their opposition to the move. The diff erent bodies made their positions known at a public hearing on five bills and a motion by the House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education headed by Hon Aminu Suleiman (APC-Kano) in Abuja yesterday.
But all the stakeholders opposed the move except, saying it would not augur well for the country’s educational system. Executive Secretary of TetFund, Dr Abdullahi Baff a, while presenting the position of the agency, said they were “vehemently against the amendment.” He said: “Admissibility of tertiary teaching hospitals, private universities and colleges of agriculture will mean the drop in the world ranking of most Nigerian institutions that are already lagging behind. “It will lead to the agitation by other members of the monotechnic family that were hitherto excluded from TETFund benefi ciaries to be captured in TETFund benefi ciary institutions list; “The House of Representatives should discourage any amendment to the TETFund Act 2011 which would put more pressure on the Fund by expanding the list of benefi ciaries of the fund.” Also speaking, ASUU President, Biodun Ogunyemi, said: “We are against inclusion of teaching hospitals into TETFund. National Assembly has made one per cent in the 2018 budget to health sector that should be enough for them. “Inclusion of Federal Teaching Hospitals will make the intervention of TETFund ineffective. The impact of TETFund will be drastically reduced.
It will reduce effective benefi ciaries of the Fund. It could trigger abuse, it will bring about fl oodgate; we should keep it like that for now; the mandate of teaching hospital fall under Ministry of Health so the ministry should continue to fund it. “Private universities should contribute not to be collecting from TETFund. They are charging and making profit,” he said.
