The Minister of Education, Mr. Tunji Alausa, has lamented that 85 per cent of Nigerian students sent abroad on government scholarships never returned to contribute to national development.

This came as he announced that tertiary institutions with fewer than 2,000 students will no longer be eligible for funding from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.

Speaking on Friday at a one-day engagement with heads of institutions, bursars, and procurement directors in Lagos, Alausa said the Federal Government was repositioning the funding framework to ensure public resources are used efficiently.

On foreign scholarships, Alausa revealed a shift in policy, explaining that more funds would now be invested in building local capacity.

He continued, ?Our evidence-based analysis showed that 85 per cent of Nigerian students sent abroad on government scholarships never returned to contribute to national development.

?Many of the programmes they studied could have been handled effectively within our own institutions.?

To address this, he said 28 Centres of Excellence have been established across public and private institutions to offer postgraduate programmes, enhance research and create jobs.

?We are re-evaluating how institutions benefit from TETFund. We can no longer incentivise poor performance or underutilisation,? the minister said.

He noted the inefficiency of allocating equal resources to underpopulated schools as those with significantly higher student numbers.

He stated, ?Several polytechnics established as far back as 2019 have only between 350 to 550 students enrolled yet receive the same level of funding as institutions with over 18,000 students.

?This is inefficient and unsustainable. Therefore, we have set a new benchmark: any institution that, after five years of operation, still has fewer than 2,000 students may be deemed ineligible for TETFund support until they scale up their capacity.?

Alausa said the engagement with institutions from the southern zone was aimed at reviewing the 2024/2025 intervention guidelines and fostering transparency.

?There?s no doubt that TETFund has greatly benefited our tertiary institutions through numerous interventions and improvements.

?However, under the directive of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, our focus now is to ensure maximum value from every naira spent in our institutions,? he further stated.

He also raised concerns about the unchecked proliferation of satellite campuses, calling it ?unsustainable and counterproductive.?

In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, said the agency is moving towards a more sustainable and performance-driven funding model.

Echono stated, ?The Fund has been moving toward a more sustainable model of funding. This is in line with the broader objective to reduce institutions? reliance on government subvention and to encourage Public-Private Partnerships, particularly in areas such as hostel development, innovation parks and service facilities.?

Echono warned that underperforming institutions risk being removed from the list of TETFund beneficiaries.

?Institutional expansion must be checked, and we must avoid unnecessary duplication of mandates.

?Institutions that consistently fail to access, utilise, or retire funds appropriately, or that fall short of enrolment and academic performance thresholds, risk being delisted,? he warned.

He added that the goal of these new measures was not to punish, but to enhance the credibility and impact of TETFund.

He declared, ?This policy is not meant to punish but to safeguard the credibility and impact of TETFund interventions. We want to ensure that the Fund?s resources are directed toward institutions committed to high standards of governance, transparency and accountability.?

He concluded by calling for deeper accountability and reform across the tertiary education sector.

?This engagement is a call to action. It is a platform to learn, reflect and commit to best practices in governance, project management and compliance,? he concluded. (The PUNCH)

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