…Many in tertiary institutions unserious
From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Taraba State Governor, Kefas Agbu, said on Friday, that he declared free and compulsory basic education to build the human capital resources in the state, making them relevant and productive for the state and the nation.
The governor said he discovered that one of the huge reasons for unending insecurity in some parts the state was largely due to lack of education, hence his focus in the development of education in the state beginning with basic education which is the foundation of learning for human development.
The governor, while speaking at the headquarters of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), in Abuja, during a courtesy visit with delegation from the state, noted that lack of education and capacity of the people is affecting the socioeconomic growth and development of the state.
He, thus solicited the support of TETFund to establish e-library and entrepreneurship training centres in higher education institutions in the state to train students, in addition to a Computer Base Test (CBT) centre to enable more students in the state participate in Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and other CBT examinations.
Governor Agbu, who commended TETFund for its massive intervention projects across tertiary education institutions in the country, said he was fully committed to transform the education sector in Taraba.
He added: “In my agenda, the priority is education, and if you look at our region in terms of education and human capital resources, there is a huge problem. We have huge human resources that are untapped, and I have also discovered that one of the huge reasons for insecurity is lack of education.
“Available data indicated that Taraba State has one of the highest number of out-of-school children. So, if at the primary and secondary levels, we don’t harvest these children, we can’t even invest in the higher institution and you will discover too that your own job will be affected, and that is why I declared free and compulsory primary and secondary school education in Taraba, and by the Grace of God when I am done with the plans I have on ground, I will invite you to come participate in the achievements.
“I have also discovered that a lot of our children are dropping out of schools because their parents cannot afford to pay their school fees. We have some students in school but they are not in school, they don’t attend classes, they are moving about taking all sorts of drugs. To reduce that, I reduced the school fees in all our tertiary institutions by half.”
Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, in his response, commended the governor for his various efforts geared towards uplifting education in the state, promising to expeditiously look into his requests.
Echono told the governor that TETFund has delivered various intervention projects in both federal and state tertiary institutions in Taraba.
“We have been making our contributions to tertiary institutions in your state, in terms of physical infrastructure, academic staff training and development, and some of your institutions have also done well in accessing our national research grant as well as in the publication of books and journals.
“As far back as 2018, we made some major impact projects in the institutions, and this year, one of the few institutions with high impact intervention is Federal University Wukari, Taraba state. We made N3 billion available to them to execute high impact projects and that is being done as I speak.
“Taraba State College of Education, Zing, is up to date in accessing what has been made available to the institution and the Provost has also made some request which is being favourably considered.
“On Taraba State Polytechnic, Suntai, we are focusing on the issue of security. The Polytechnic in Bali is also benefiting from some of our interventions and they want to address issues around power.”
Photo caption
TETFund Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono, handing over a package to the Taraba Governor, Kefas Agbu.