TETFund Giving N10m To Schools To Teach Lecturers How To Write

Moved by claims that 80% of lecturers do not know how to write research proposals, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund is earmarking N10 million to each tertiary institution under its mandate to organize training for lecturers on writing research proposals.

The executive secretary of the agency, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro who disclosed this on Thursday said the move was because of the fund’s concern that Nigerian lecturers could barely write “fundable research proposals.”

Bogoro spoke in Abuja, during an interactive session with Directors of Research of Nigerian Universities.

He said that between 70% and 80% of research proposals sent in by lecturers in the country could not be acted upon because they were very poorly written.

“At TETFund, for the first time this year, in our 2019 budget, I created N10 million available for all beneficiary institutions for capacity building training for research proposal writing. 

“It has never happened before and I am insisting that N10 million will be made available.

“The Vice Chancellors, Rectors and Provosts will give a week-long capacity building training or workshop annually to improve the capacity of our researchers in proposal writing so that we can win grants.”

Arguing for collaboration among institutions with similar mandates towards boosting the country’s research activities, he said:

“In Nigeria, agencies that have similar mandates but arguably with a collective call of changing Nigeria want to operate as islands; they are mutually exclusive in their operations; so even in the complementary areas of their mandates that they ought to work together we lose it all.

“We should reflect over the role of research in the agenda of development. Most of our universities are missing that purpose.

“We celebrate publications, not research that solve economic technological and societal problems. That is where we missed it all.

“Many of the times we make the mistake of patronising charlatans instead of experts; we cannot move forward with that attitude; we just have to correct it.”

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