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,â€
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.”
