The N95 billion disbursed by the Federal Government for educational purposes, has been seen as insufficient to solve all the problems currently facing tertiary institutions. Speaking to Vanguard Learning, the secretary of ASUU at the Lagos State University (LASU), Dr. Jimoh Abayomi stated that the N95 billion will be inadequate to solve the problems currently facing the tertiary institutions. When asked if the money disbursed by the Federal Government will be enough to solve the problems facing tertiary institutions, Dr. Jimoh Abayomi stated; “That is an obvious no, unless there will be provision of regular funding by the Federal Government.” He believes that there will be a boost in the education sector but only if the government provides regular funding. He also stated that the money should not be given to the vice-chancellors. His words; “The money should be given to the Budget Monitoring Fund(BMF) as they can easily help to plan and execute projects of given institutions.” Funds have been highly mismanaged, not only in the education sector, but other sectors of the nation. The education sector should be regarded as highly important if any country desires to move forward. Much has been said about the state of education in our country, but not until recently, when the Federal Government earmarked an estimated N95 billion for intervention in Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund. Each beneficiary university is expected to receive about N598 million, each polytechnic N339.5 million and college of education N321 million. According to the Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i; “over the last couple of decades, the right priorities in education were not addressed, our institutions continue to grapple with enormous expenditure outside their core mandates.” She further said that “to restore the vibrancy of our institutions and achieve the the desired outcomes, we must get our priorities right and manage our institutions transparently.”

MINISTER of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufa’i has commissioned the Electronic Teaching and Learning Platform at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
The Minister assured that government was determined to provide the basic facilities that would enhance the educational system and make it globally competitive.
Rufa’i said that the platform would address the challenge of large classes, particularly general courses, as students can participate adequate in their lectures from a distance. She noted that the platform would complement the Virtual Library Project of the NUC with a library holding of over 16,000 academic journals for students and researchers.
She disclosed that the Nigerian Universities Electronic Teaching and Learning Platform was one of the schemes introduced by the Federal Government with the support of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to support the universities in producing more quality graduates and research output.
Professor Rufa’i further explained that the project was an ICT-enabled interactive teaching and learning concept, which main focus was to develop ‘smart’ classrooms that use technology to overcome the challenges of large classes, aid modern methods of teaching and learning as well as content development using interactive tools.
She listed some of the component of the platform to include a pool of interactive whiteboards with networking capabilities; high resolution audio-visual teaching aids,; capacity development on modern methods of teaching and learning and an electronic content development and a pool of electronic clipart resources.
The Minister said as part of government’s efforts toward deploying ICT in the universities, ICT resource centres were built in some federal universities which include: Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike; University of Port Harcourt; University of Benin; University of Abuja;Federal University of Technology, Minna; Federal University of Technology Owerri and University of Calabar.
The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC) Professor Julius Okojie enjoined the students to protect the facilities from vandalisation, noting that government had invested so much to actualise the project.
He said, for Nigeria to be in the league of the 20 biggest world economies, her citizens, especially the academia must strive to catch up with evolving technology. He disclosed that ICT has developed from a very complex course to a more interesting one with inventions for solving difficult problems.
The NUC Scribe challenged the staff to develop a university culture, which he said was germane for teaching, research and community service, Stressing that the present administration was determined to transform the Nigerian University System.
Professor Okojie expressed delight at the level of progress in the university and commended the Vice-Chancellor and her team for striving to address some of the challenges which had improved the accreditation status of the university.
Earlier in her welcome address, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Comfort Ekpo commended the Federal government and the Honourable Minister of Education for considering the institution among the 12 beneficiaries of the pilot project. She said the University had received an initial consignment of 20 interactive white boards with accompanying projectors and accessories.
She disclosed that the university had also deployed the facilities to 20 locations with a minimum of one unit in each faculty. She said in addition, adequate power supply had been provided with the procurement of inverters for the systems. Professor Ekpo also informed the minister that part of the measures to ensure the usage of the platform, 50 academic staff had been trained to manage the facilities.
She commended the State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio for donating some classroom blocks, a Moot Court for the Faculty of Law and the construction of access road in the university.

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