The Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Arc. Sonny Echono, has decried the low uptake of the agency’s free digital resources, saying Nigerian students are ignoring access to 400 global libraries on the Tertiary Education Research and Application Service (TERAS) platform.
TERAS is a national digital platform designed to enhance teaching, learning, research, innovation, and institutional efficiency.
Echono stated this when he declared open the Education Correspondents Association of Nigeria (ECAN) congress in Abuja.
He said students continue to pay for content on platforms like Google Scholar while TETFund’s resources remain unused.
“We established a very comprehensive platform. We call it the TERAS. Where students and lecturers can go and access educational content. You have access to 400 different libraries across the globe on that platform. You have access to anti-plagiarism checkers for any work you do. And they all come free of charge.
“Yet in the last few years, we are still trying to get all our students on board. When in reality, this is something they should all be rushing and looking for.
“Because you spend so much money, even when you go online, Google Scholar and so on. Some of these contents you are looking for, they tell you to pay $5 before you can access them. But this is coming free of charge,” he said.
He added that TETFund had digitalized theses from the last ten years to support research, but students still need sensitisation to use them.
He described limited use of knowledge as one of the biggest challenges in the sector and tasked ECAN to bridge the gap.
“For our people, it’s even more strategic. One of the biggest challenges we face, both in our society and in the educational sector, is the limited use of knowledge.
“Sometimes this is due to lack of information about it. Requiring sensitisation. At other times, it is the usual inertia to make change. So, it’s the Nigerian malaise that we need to address. And you are the bridge for achieving that. Because it is what you project out there that you become aware of,” he said.
Echono also announced that TETFund will commence project commissioning and inspection tours across the six political zones before December.
“For the projects we have planned to commission between now and December. We want to ensure that your members are included. We are going to be doing them according to six political zones. But we will ensure that each team will have both electronic and print media on it,” he said.
He said the tours will help students, parents and staff know about facilities available to them, including regional research labs and academic publishing centres in eight locations.
“It will enable some of the students on campus to become aware of the facilities that are available to them. And to take ownership. We are talking about things like the regional, multi-regional and proposed research labs. We are talking about our academic publishing centres. That we also have in eight different locations,” he said.
On abandoned projects in tertiary institutions, Echono clarified that many were not TETFund’s adding however, that the agency will fund completion of those at 40 to 90 percent completion next year.
“Many of the projects, some are 40, 50, some are even as high as 90 percent. But we decided that for next year, we will make a specific allocation. So, we can complete some of these projects and put them to use. Because as long as they remain in that state, they are wasting assets,” he said.
He urged ECAN to give feedback and help hold contractors accountable.
“I also hope that you will seize this opportunity to give us feedback. Because it is the most important thing for us as administrators. So, we also expect you to do a bit of research. Find ways and means. Offer us advice. If these are not happening well, we need to know which schools. Which contractors. So that we can draw the attention of relevant authorities,” Echono said.
Responding, ECAN Chairman, Chuks Ukwatu, congratulated Echono on the successes recorded as Executive Secretary of TETFund, adding that the association has closely covered the agency’s activities and can attest that the leadership has significantly advanced the mandate of TETFund.
Ukwatu also announced that the ECAN Education Summit is scheduled to hold next month, where the first three years of the Tinubu administration will be assessed for reforms, progress and challenges in Nigeria’s education sector.
The chairman said the summit will bring together key stakeholders including policymakers, administrators, development partners, academics and the media, and will be declared open by the Honourable Minister of Education who will serve as special guest of honour.
He added that Echono is among the heads of agencies selected to receive an ECAN award in recognition of outstanding work in advancing education in the country.
