Fund education adequately, FG urged
Nnaji made the plea, yesterday, at the opening ceremony of the annual National Higher Education Forum organised by Tell Magazine in conjunction with federal ministry of education, Tetfund and Sojourn.He said the challenges facing education sector were enormous, canvassing for more funds for the sector to address the multitude challenges. He noted that “the funds […]
Nnaji made the plea, yesterday, at the opening ceremony of the annual National Higher Education Forum organised by Tell Magazine in conjunction with federal ministry of education, Tetfund and Sojourn.
He said the challenges facing education sector were enormous, canvassing for more funds for the sector to address the multitude challenges.
He noted that “the funds being provided to universities as research grants are inadequate,” advising government to provide more research grants to enable academia conduct researches that can impact on the lives of people and the economy of the country.
Nanaji said: “Our companies are not partnering with Nigerian universities to conduct researches for them, while government is not implementing the outputs of the researches conducted by our universities.”
He observed that because of this disconnect, Nigeria remained a consuming nation, adding: “Until the government, companies and higher institutions work together, the country cannot solve its infrastructural and technological challenges.”
The former minister called for the establishment of an agency to handle issues pertaining to research, saying: “Adequate funding leads to quality research outputs, research leads to technology and technology leads to emergence of companies, which in turn employ people.”
He regretted that the infrastructures and quality of teachers were declining in our institutions of learning, while the institutions continued to produce half baked products.
Earlier, the President of Tell Magazine, Mr. Nosa Igiebor, said the challenges facing education needed a holistic approach by all stakeholders in the sector, noting that government should not be left to handle the burden alone.