By Gom Mirian
The Executive Secretary, National Commission for Colleges of Education, Professor Paulinus Okwelle has called on the Tertiary Education Trust Fund to extend funding support to private colleges of education to improve their quality of learning.
Okwelle made the submission in Abuja, Thursday at the TETFund book distribution during the 25th Conference of the Nigerian Academy of Education.
“I want to appreciate TETFund for the much they are doing in both human capacity building and infrastructure. Next time let us include some of these private colleges of education, we are all producing the same NCE, in any way, we can assist them by enriching their libraries so that they will not have issues when we go for accreditation,” he said.
The Executive Secretary, TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono in a statement made available to our correspondent on Friday stated that a total of 2,253 textbooks sponsored by the Fund and written by scholars of the Nigerian Academy of Education were distributed to public federal and state colleges of education in the country.
Echono said TETFund will continue to support the production of vital textbooks for use in public tertiary institutions, adding that books are an important asset for a country’s growth and catalyst for mental growth and social integration.
“Books are the bedrock of all learning whether in digital or hard format, books play a very important role as reference materials for scholars, students and all who seek knowledge.”
The President, Nigerian Academy of Education, Professor Kabiru Isyaku urged TETFund to sustain the efforts of supporting the local production of textbooks by Nigerian scholars and explained that the academy strives to improve the quality of education throughout the country by taking the initiative to express views on plans, programmes, policy and practice in education.
