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The precedent men [Sun, The (Nigeria)](Sun, The (Nigeria) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) • How to turn your academic institution into a place of learning and research, our story, by Profs Ibrahim and Mbah Prof. Saminu Abdurrahman Ibrahim, the newly-appointed Vice Chancellor of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, dreams of leaving behind a university with first class researchers where teaching and learning is interactive and facilitated by Information Technology as a legacy. And he is quick to admit that scholarship is nothing if it does not make positive impact on humanity, hence his desire to touch the university's host community by providing social amenities and training that will improve their wellbeing. The new VC lauded the Tertiary Education Fund (TETFUND) under the chairmanship of Dr Musa Babayo and the Executive Secretary, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, respectively, for the various interventions carried out by the TETFUND in the nation's universities saying it has improved academic performance and standard. Gratitude to TETFund Ibrahim, a professor of soil science who was recently appointed VC of ATBU, is particularly grateful that TETFUND interventions in his university, ATBU, have brought profound transformations and have helped in accelerating the much-needed excellence in scholarship. Recall that TETFUND Executive Secretary Bogoro, revealed, recently, that allocation to each of the country's 183 universities by TETFUND yearly increased from N303 million in 2010 to N912 million this year. Also allocation to polytechnics jumped from N183 in 2010 to N661 million while that of Colleges of Education rose from N157 million in 2010 to N481 million in 2014. "The funds are disbursed for the general improvement of education on federal and states tertiary education institutions specifically for provision, maintenance of essential physical infrastructure for teaching and learning, instructional materials and equipment, research and publication and academic staff training and development," Bogoro said. TETFund Board of Trustees Chairman Dr. Babayo said that the collaboration partnership between TETFund and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has strategically improved the quality of education in Nigeria by addressing some of the age-need problems on infrastructure, teaching and learning environment. "Impact of strategic partnership in collection of Education Tax is very instructive on quality of education in Nigeria," Babayo disclosed saying that in 2013 the funds surpassed its target of N118 billion by recording a total collection of N279 billion which indicates an increase of N161 billion over the target set for the year. He said that in 2014 intervention programme, Board of Trustees has, in accordance with TETfund enabling act, approved the allocation of N135 billion as direct disbursements to the three tiers of tertiary education in the public sector, representing an average of 45 per cent increase allocation made possible by the increase in education tax collection in 2013. Infrastructures and legacy Speaking with our reporter, the ATBU VC said: "TETFUND has improved our faculties and indeed improved the infrastructure generally. We have also had the chance to buy some equipment and materials we need for research and teaching. We have also had the opportunity to train our staff which I believe is a very important intervention from TETFUND. "We have about 500 staff members that are either on PhD or MSc. studies both locally as well as abroad, at the moment, courtesy of TETFUND. We have also had the chance to go for international conferences. Each year we have about 50 to 60 people that go abroad on international conferences. We also have about 60 that attend local conferences in the country. As it is right now, we have been able to build a whole new science and engineering complex at the Yelwa campus. I would say that without TETFUND it is really hard to imagine how the landscape would be like with regards to tertiary institutions in this country. TETFUND has been doing a lot of intervention that are very useful and important for the development of Nigerian higher institutions." On the legacy he hopes to leave behind after his tenure, Prof. Ibrahim said: "The primary purpose of university are three: research, teaching and community service. So I want to leave behind a university where we have first-class researchers in place and also conducting researches that touch the lives of human beings because it is not enough to conduct research and write a paper and get promoted to be a professor or whatever if you do not change a community in which you live. "So importantly we want to see that we produce research outputs that make impact and change the lives of human beings and also the learning environment should be changed in such a way that we move with the trends. Last month, I was in China and saw how they are able to use ICT to improve teaching and learning. So we want to see a university where teaching is a little more interactive especially with regards to the ICT in our infrastructure for this university. Even though teaching and research are also community service, there are some things that you will probably do for the community. For example, provision of water, doing some training that will impact on the lives of the host community and indeed humanity in general with regards to community service." ICT and sexual harassment of female students In a related development, the Provost of the Federal College of Education, Eha-Amufu, Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State, Prof. Benjamin Mbah, has put in place some ICT mechanisms to ensure that lecturers no longer harass female students sexually and where they do, he warned that they would face the music. He insisted that a lecturer who is caught in the act could lose his appointment, "because there are laid down rules about some of those things." "About a section or two ago, we really worked on our ICT. We did a lot of training and now after every semester, two or three weeks are given for marking and you submit your grades both in electronic and printed form," he said on the measures being adopted to check sexual harassment of female students. "And within a week, the results are online. Students don't go to ask for their grades again from their lecturers; they just go online and pick their grades. And that has helped a lot because now, you can't change grades; you can't do all kinds of things any longer. You have to report within a given time. If you don't submit, you are in trouble already. Then, on the issue of students going to harass lecturers, we haven't gotten report from lecturers." When he assumed office in 2010, he promised to fight examination malpractice to a standstill. Today, the story of how the college has successfully fought the scourge of exam malpractice is no longer news. "The examination ethics programme of the college is very fundamental," he said. "It is like you promise that you want to do everything as far as examination is concerned following the rules. We have over 30 staff who have made that pledge. They have been trained and certified. We also have students' club on ethics. So, it is a thing that we have cultivated and it is accepted and popular. They work during internal exams. Even during JAMB post-UTME, you will see them walking around wearing their yellow-colour examination marshal jackets, making sure things are going well. We have developed a proactive stance in that regard. We don't want to catch you; we want to stop you from doing it. In a way, we are more proactive now, but you never can predict what students can do. Sometimes, they want to dribble but the consciousness is there that we don't allow exam malpractice. You know it has gone so bad that even lecturers participate but you can't think of that here. The student who is carrying anything will even be afraid to bring it into the exam hall because the exam ethics marshals are everywhere. So, that consciousness alone is a positive one." Security and students accommodation Having assumed office as the Provost of the institution in 2010, when the school was facing a porous security situation, he equally rose to that challenge by encouraging the students to be security-conscious, by organizing further trainings for operatives of the firm in charge of the campus security as well as strengthening the good working relationship that exists between the school and security agents – the Police, the Department of State Security (DSS) and the Civil Defence Corps. Although the problem of accommodation remains as acute as ever at FCE, Eha-Amufu because of the peculiar nature of the environment where alternative accommodation is a bit difficult to come by, Prof. Mbah's administration has tried to alleviate the sufferings of students on this area by putting in place a few blocks of hostels while renovating some others. He has also improved on the ICT facilities to enhance the Internet connectivity on the campus, "even though the entire campus is not yet hot, but we are in the process of getting most of the places hot. Right now, once you are around my office, it is hot but the next thing is to get it to the hostels and some other places." The post The precedent men appeared first on The Sun News. (c) 2014 The Sun Publishing Limited. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |