Gov Radda seeks TETFund’s intervention for state-owned higher schools
By Uji A. Iliyasu
Abuja
The executive governor of Katsina state, Dikko Radda, Monday appealed to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to complement the government’s efforts in tackling security challenges bedevilling tertiary institutions in the state.
Radda made the appeal when he led the Katsina State delegation on a working visit to TETFund in Abuja.
The governor said that a lot of students had been kidnapped hence the need for the support to enable the state provide adequate infrastructure for students to learn.
He said he had gone round tertiary institutions in Katsina state and had seen the kind of interventions in the institutions as well as the building of capabilities of their lecturers.
He said, “We need to appreciate the Federal Government for these interventions. What could our institutions be without you?
“The states are struggling; the country is struggling in terms of economic hardship, depreciation of naira, high food stuffs, effect on removal of subsidy.
“The northern parts are struggling with insecurity. The resources we receive will not be adequate to address the challenges in the state. So, TETFund is a place we can come to for support.
“We are having security threat and a lot of students have been kidnapped, so we need security in our institutions to make students learn in a conducive environment.’
The governor explained that the interventions would provide for the needed infrastructure for the safety of the students.
He noted that the state is in the process of converting its ICT institution to a university of technology.
Responding, the Executive Secretary, TETFund, Sonny Echono said that insecurity was a national issue affecting not only education but sectors of the economy, and promised that the necessary infrastructure would be put in place to address security challenges facing tertiary institutions in the state.
He said TETFund had prioritised all the trouble spots with measures in place to address the issues
“Giving the expansion in tertiary institutions in recent times, I am aware we are in the process of getting University of Transportation into the mainstream of our interventions.
“We have seven to eight institutions in the state benefiting from TETFund. Katsina is in the eyes of problems of insecurity.
“We have already priortised Katsina in our security intervention because President Bola Tinubu is determined that in times of crisis, education must not stop.
“The President has said that we must bring those out of school back to school, expand existing programmes and more significantly is expanding access in leveraging technology and providing for indigent students,’’ he said.
Echono added that skills programmes must be expanded to cover the skills gap while pledging that massive plans had been put on ground to take children off the street.
He said that the fund had commenced its intervention line for the year, saying beneficiary institutions across the country had benefitted between N1.1 billion and N1.9 billion in its intervention line.
He advised the state Commissioner for Education to laiase with the fund in order to enlist the institutions to benefit in its interventions.