Stakeholders in the education sector have been advised to continue to constructively engage with government to bridge the gap and find lasting solutions to the challenges in the Sector.
This was the consensus of speakers on Thursday, April, 27, at the opening of the 18th annual conference of the Fulbright Alumni Association of Nigeria, FAAN, ongoing in Lagos, with the theme: “Improving the Quality of Higher Education: Stakeholders’ Engagement”.
The three day conference is being hosted by the University of Lagos with support from the United States Mission in Nigeria.
In a keynote address titled “Returns on Investment on Tertiary Education in Nigeria”
The Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, Mr Sunny Echono outlined the various interventions made by the Fund in the sector which he said had yielded many positive results.
Represented by the Director, Strategic Planning, Mr Inene Erivwo, Mr. Echono pointed out that TETFUND was established from similar stakeholders’ recommendations and advised the stakeholders not to relent.
“Government cannot do it alone, through these engagements, we’ll get ideas, where to focus and not to focus, it is a triple helmet strategy, the academia, the government and the industries ; the industries need to come in, there are so many researches going on, the industries need to take them up and commercialise them to move us from this dependent economy, believe me, we have the capacity” he said.
Commending the Fulbright Scholars who she said have been adding value to the University community and the entire nation, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Professor Folasade Ogunshola urged them to not just collaborate, but also facilitate and teach students how to do it.
She said “if we are going to teach collaboration, we must see it starting with the faculty, how is medicine collaborating with law, how’s law collaborating with engineering, how are we merging courses so that they are really speaking to problems and lests start talking development and those solutions must be captures in the way we teach, in the courses that we teach”
In a remark, the Minister-Counselor for Public Affairs, US embassy, Abuja, Mr Adnan Siddiqi noted that the parameters for measuring quality education have been changing from generations to generations and assured the Scholars of the US government’s support in ensuring that the education being provided in Nigeria is relevant to the times.
“At this conference you are going to come up with some good ideas that you’ll want to implement, we are the US embassy are ready to help you achieve your goals, it is a partnership”
Earlier FAAN President, Professor. Adele Garkinda explained that the Association’s conferences always aim to provide eorkable solutions to identified problems in the country.