By Funmilayo Adeyemi

The Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund),  Sonny Echono, has pledged support for measures that will improve employment of graduates in the county.

Echono made the pledge at an Implementation Support Workshop for National Employability Benchmarking Programme in Nigerian universities in Abuja on Wednesday.

He stressed the importance of implementing the recommendations contained in a report submitted by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to ultimately reduce the high rate of unemployment in the country.

“The report indicates that the aggregate average score of Nigerian benchmark institutions across the five dimensions of employability is 2.3 out of 4.0 which is just above the average of all institutions benchmarked globally (2.2).

“The report which also covers the assessment of the institutions’ Digital Learning Strategy shows that surveyed universities lagged behind global best practices in application of digital learning strategies, access to large multidisciplinary databases and digital course-reserves as well as the level of faculty digital skills.

“This obviously require deliberate action on the part of all stakeholders to address our peculiar challenges,” he added.

Echono said that Nigeria being a developing economy is faced with the challenges of high unemployment, particularly youth unemployment which is at an all-time high in the country.

He added that an increasing number of young Nigerian graduates from tertiary education institutions are being released into the labour market with a continuously shrinking absorptive capacity.

“The structure of the economy which is largely import dependent has further limited the ability of the country to generate commensurable jobs due to low level of industrialisation, thereby aggravating the unemployment situation in Nigeria.

“Thus, aligning our intervention activities to meet our changing needs, and strengthening our education delivery towards fostering an entrepreneurship culture are some of the best ways for unleashing the enormous youth potential,” he said.

He added that the fund is also working to address unemployment as well as other societal problems, thereby growing the economy.

He said that strengthening entrepreneurship education and training are crucial to achieving this.

“As an intervention agency for tertiary education in Nigeria, TETFund is deliberately refocusing its intervention activities to support learning outcomes and employability of Nigerian tertiary education graduates.

” I am pleased to report that the Strategic and Operational Plan for refocusing TETFund entrepreneurship intervention for employability and innovation was approved by the Federal Ministry of Education in March 2023.

“Consequently, the requirements and guidelines for accessing entrepreneurship development intervention of the Fund were revised in line with the approved Plan.

“In addition, the Fund is in the process of establishing entrepreneurship and innovation hubs in our beneficiary institutions across the six geo-political zones of the country, to link them with industry.

“This is with a view to enhance entrepreneurship development, innovation and employability in line with contemporary global best practices,” he said.

He, therefore, said that the interventions would help promote the transformation of beneficiary institutions into catalysts for knowledge creation and organising the translation of knowledge into usable products and services for addressing societal problems. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Julius Toba-Jegede

By Funmilayo Adeyemi

The Africa Community School (ACS) and the Africa International College (AIC), in a bid to giving back to the society have impacted no fewer than 109 learners with scholarships gulping about N70 million.

The Executive Secretary of the schools, Mrs  Caroline Yakubu disclosed this at a news conference to herald their 20th Anniversary Celebration in Abuja on Wednesday.

Yakubu said the schools also collaborated with some public schools in the locality by supporting them with materials to help learners.

”The items include furniture, books and other learning materials. Besides, the folks and indigenes that reside around our locations have been employed within their appropriate skills.

“More importantly, God has helped us to positively impact the educational pursuit of many learners that have passed through our schools.

“In Africa Community School (ACS), over 109 students have benefited from our internal scholarship and support schemes totaling nearly N70 million and still counting.

“At the other end, in Africa International College (AIC), we have reached out to over 92 students totaling about N90 million. For the two schools, God has enabled us to support the training of more than 200 learners with over N160 million spent on them.

“These are verifiable persons and figures. These were students who, through no fault of theirs, lost one or both parents, while they were with us or children from proven economically disadvantaged families,” she said.

Yakubu  said that the school had made it a policy that once a child is admitted into the schools and he/she loses any or both parents, that child must not be withdrawn on the account of inability to pay school fees.

The executive secretary noted that the funds were all internally generated with some support from a few former parents and individuals.

She, therefore, called for support from the government to assist private educational sector to thrive in the business of bringing values out of Nigerian students through creation of an enabling environment.

She said that many times, the private sector provides social amenities to grow their businesses and still contends with multiple taxes from the government.

“The place and role of private schools in our educational system cannot be over emphasised. During the military era, they tried to nationalise many private schools, including mission schools. How did it end?

“Unquantifiable losses were the experiences and we are still paying heavily for the errors.

”In the FCT alone, there are over 2,400 private schools and about 830 public schools. Again, imagine with me, an FCT where there are no privately run schools. What would be the implications all round?,” she added.

In the same vein, the Chairman of the School Board, Mr Nda Yakubu, pleaded with the government to look into the multiplicity of taxes that are not regulated.

He said that if not checked , the cost would be transferred to parents through hike in fees.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Julius Toba-Jegede

By Funmilayo Adeyemi

The Vice Chancellor, University of Abuja, Prof. Abdul-Rasheed Na’allah has disclosed that students who intend to study in the university must undertake and present a drug test before admission.

Na’allah, who made this known at the 27th Pre- Convocation briefing in Abuja on Wednesday said the institution is working with NDLEA to help students involved in drug abuse and to rehabilitate them.

He said drug status of students is important in order to help students to be free from drugs.

Though he said the students would not be sent out from school if involved in drug abuse, but rather be rehabilitated in collaboration with the NDLEA.

The vice chancellor also disclosed that 7,128 undergraduate students would be graduating at the school’s convocation slated for Saturday, on Oct. 7.

He listed those that would be graduating to also include 100 PhDs, 326 academic Masters and 346 Professional Masters.

He said 40 students would be graduating with First Class , 474 with Second Class Upper, 944 Second Class Lower, 174 with 3rd Class and One Pass degree.

He, however, said the university had banned Pass degree going forward.

He added that the university would also confer Honorary Doctorate Degree of Letters on Prof. Toyin Falola of the University of Texas, Houston for his role in the development and growth of the institution and other African universities at large.

The vice chancellor also explained that the institution would be introducing Russia Language as part of the general courses that students must pass before graduating.

This, he said is to make new knowledge available to students.

“The university has developed into a global university with the offering of different languages, which include Japanese, French, Portuguese among others.

“Efforts are though being made to bring in full some of the foreign languages as degrees programmes but the varsity has made it a compulsory in General Studies that every student must study and pass a foreign language before graduation.

“We are going to offer Russia language in addition to the foreign languages we offer. Students are made to offer and pass one of these foreign languages,”he said.

While noting the efforts made by the university to achieve its mandates, he said it has embarked on fund raising for alumni, philanthropists and also identifying foundations that would help in sponsoring researches, trainings and others.

He also disclosed the National Universities Commission (NUC) had approved 26 new academic programmes for the university.

According to him the university will now offer some of the new courses starting from 2023/2024 academic session.

The courses include Nursing, Communication and Media Studies, Pharmacy, Tourism and hospitality, Agricultural engineering ,among others. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Julius Toba-Jegede