In a bid at addressing the decades-long calls for better funding of tertiary institutions in Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu has approved the sum of N683,429,268 billion as intervention fund for public tertiary schools in the country for 2024.
This heartwarming development was announced by the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, Sonny Echono on Friday at the Fund’s strategic planning meeting with heads of beneficiary institutions in Abuja.
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According to him, from the total, 90.75 per cent is earmarked for direct disbursement, 8.94 per cent for some designated special projects, and 2.27 per cent is budgeted for response to emerging issues.
He also disclosed that each university shall get for the Year 2024 intervention cycle, the total sum of N1,906,944,930.00, polytechnic N1,165,355,235.00 while each College of Education has N1,398,426,282.00.
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The intervention fund is expected to go a long way in addressing the long the decades-long calls for better funding of schools in Nigeria. Lecturers in the country’s public schools have often resorted to strikes to drum home their demands which also included better pay and improved facilities for learning institutions.
In late 2022, university lecturers suspended an eight-month strike over pay, welfare, and crumbling facilities, the latest industrial dispute to hit Africa’s most populous nation.
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The strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had shut down federal government-owned universities since February 14 that year despite talks with the government to find a truce.
That strike was the second longest by ASUU, known for its work stoppages. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the university teachers went on strike for nine months.
The demands of the lecturers are the same as in previous strikes — higher pay, improved welfare, increased funding, and upgraded facilities.
