Director of Academic Staff Training Development, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Mohammed Suleiman, says no fewer than 762 scholars have benefited from FG government research support amounting to about N3.3bn across Gombe tertiary institutions.
The beneficiaries are from four schools namely, College of Education (Technical), Federal University Kashere, Gombe State University and Gombe State College of Education, Billiri.
Suleiman stated this on Wednesday during a hearing on training/utilisation of Staff Intervention Programme provisions at Gombe State University, led by board chairman Kashim Imam.
He explained, “Before coming we sent out documents to all the beneficiary institutions in this country that will help us in undertaking this assignment. Gombe State has four (4) institutions both federal and state College of Education Technical; we have sponsored 29 foreign PhD, 20 foreign masters, 87 local PhD, 116 local masters giving a total of 252 and expended N793m.
“Others are: Federal University Kashere 49 foreign PhD sponsored, 2 foreign masters, 3 benchwork, 64 local PhD, 145 local masters total of 263 sponsored scholars at a total cost of N1b. Gombe State college of Education Billiri; 3 foreign masters sponsored and 3 local masters total of 6 scholarship at a total cost of N29M and Gombe State University TETFUND sponsored 38 foreign PhD’s, 27 foreign masters, 1 bench work, 127 local PhD, 48 local masters, 241 total scholarship at total cost of N1b.
“In total Gombe State benefited 116 for foreign PhD, 52 foreign masters, 4 benchwork, 278 are local PhD, 312 local masters giving a total of 762 sponsorships at a total cost of N3.3b.”
Suleiman noted that TETFUND is bedeviled with three major challenges, adding that they have been encumbrances to it development.
“Issue of sponsoring scholars to particularly outside of the country and some of the decide to change their institution of study without recourse to TETFUND is one of our challenges.
“Some beneficiaries will be given approval but will not come back to continue their job as lecturers. These are part of our challenges we have been communicating with beneficiaries institutions to put some measures to curtail this act, he said.
According to him, the figures portrayed are the organization’s own, while lamenting the staggering details from various institutions on TETFUND’s intervention.
He added, “The figures rarely are our figures and we established that what we have in TETFUND as our record is different from what our beneficiary institutions have.
Hence, the need to visit the institutions with a view to harmonizing and reconciling these records and so the essence of this exercise is to reconcile the records and to interact with you the beneficiaries on how to improve TETFUND’s activities going forward.”
PUNCH
