The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Yola Zone, has kicked against the scrapping of TETFund and the reduction of its shares as contained in the Tax Reform Bill before the National Assembly.
The zone comprising of MODIBBO ADAMA University, Yola (MAU), Adamawa State University, Mubi (ADSU), Taraba State University Jalingo(TSU), University of Maiduguri (Unimaid), Federal University Gashua (FUGA), and Yobe State University Damaturu (YSU) made this known at a press conference at MAU, Yola on Friday.
Speaking at the briefing, the zonal chairman of ASUU, Dr. Dani Mamman frowned at the dismantling of the critical funding mechanism of TETFund which seek to allocate only 50 per cent of the development levy to TETFund from 2005-2006 with the remaining half diverted to NITDA, NASENI, and NELFund.
The union also challenged the bill for proposing to further reduce the shares of 66 per cent from 2027 to 2029 and 0 per cent by 2030, thereby ending TETFund interventions mandate.
The union called for its rejection by all Nigerians because “it will spell doom and disaster to Nigeria’s education sector, especially the tertiary education system in the country.”
“The Nigeria tax bill 2024, however, seeks to systematically dismantled TETFund. It proposes gradual reduction in TETFund allocations from the development levy, culminating in a complete cessation of funding from 2030 onwards which will effectively cripple TETFund ability to support critical areas such as staff development, research and infrastructural development.
This is unacceptable and will spell doom and disaster to tertiary education sector in particular and Nigeria’s education system as a whole,” the union revealed.
It stated that the bill, if allowed to be passed into law, has dire consequences for the education sector because it will inevitably return Nigeria to the dark ages of underfunding and crumbling universities characterized by a decline in academic standards, brain drain, stifled research, and increased social unrest.
Mamman called on National Assembly members, stakeholders, parents, students, traditional rulers, religious leaders, civil society organizations, and the general public to unite against the bill.
Expressing reservations about the student loans initiative by the government, they said what they proposed to the government was student grants, not loans which students are expected to pay back in due course.
According to them, this kind of policy always ends up in disaster without any sustainable impacts on the education sector.
The Guardian
