The Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Arc. Sonny Echono, has called for deliberate effort on Research and Development saying only this will empower the country to achieve the desired progress as a knowledge-based economy.
Echono also called for relevant policy implementation to properly reposition research across tertiary institutions.
Echono made the calls while delivering a keynote lecture at the 18th Convocation ceremony of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), in Enugu, south-east Nigeria.
In the lecture titled ‘Education, Research and Human Development in Nigeria: The Challenges and Missing Link’, Arc. Echono x-rayed the lingering challenges of the Nation’s tertiary educational institutions and their inability to perform to expectations through viable researches that would lead to solutions to various human problems; stating that strengthening the Triple Helix Model, capacity building as well as focused funding of research would address the issues to a large extent.
He identified the major role of tertiary education through its institutions as that of manpower development or human capital, which involves the task of inculcating the skills, aptitude, attitude, knowledge, morals, values, creative ability, promotion of research and also contributing to the development of the host communities in achieving these roles.
He added that there is need for effective teaching and learning, research and development culture.
“At the heart of the neglect and negligible impact of research in Nigeria’s national development efforts is the lack of clear-cut philosophy and goal for sustainable development of the Nigerian state. The conduct of research in the nation’s higher institutions has not been accorded the seriousness and attention it deserves,” he said.
Research Output
According to Tetfund boss, “Poor research output is a natural consequence of the absence of infrastructural facilities. Conducting research requires a conducive atmosphere or environment. In many institutions, basic infrastructure such as laboratories, instruments and equipment, internet connectivity etc. are either absent or dilapidated. Similarly, the capacity of academics across higher institutions in Nigeria to carry out meaningful research is lacking”
“Many universities, polytechnics and colleges of education lecturers lack the basic ability, skill and motivation to carry out standard research in many fields. They are equally handicapped to access any grants or research funds either within or outside their institutions due to lack of capacity.
“The situation is compounded by lack of credible and timely data, absence of legal frameworks for research, low uptake and implementation of research results, academic corruption including protracted supervision of postgraduate students and low computer literacy amongst scholars,” Arc. Echono lamented.
“Nations that recognise and apply the Triple Helix Model that espouses synergy among academia/research institutions, industry and government in national development drive have the ability to and play active role in a knowledge driven economy. Academia and industry must interface in a sustainable manner that produces goods and services for local consumption and export as well as guarantee human capital development,” Echono added.
The Executive Secretary expressed hope that with the recent drive by TETFund for Nigeria to embrace the triple helix model as the panacea for transforming research and education generally, research and development would soon get its place of pride accordingly.
Tetfund Wins ICT Gold Merit Award
The fund (Tetfund) was recently awarded the ICT Gold Merit Award by the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) in recognition of the Fund’s contributions to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the country.
It was in recognition of the Thesis Digitization Project embarked upon by the agency for the creation of institutional research repositories.
The award was presented to the Fund at the 2022 National Information Technology Merit Award (NITMA) held recently in Lagos.
