TETFund Has Ensured Standard Libraries In Our Institutions – Kolapo

TETFund Has Ensured Standard Libraries In Our Institutions – Kolapo Support Service is a department in the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) that takes care of content-based interventions in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions. CHIKA MEFOR-NWACHUKWUspoke with its director, Okunlola Kolapo on the operations of the department and how its interventions have impacted positively to tertiary institutions in the country.

What is the department all about?

The department takes care of the content-based interventions which are areas of capacity building in our tertiary institutions; that differentiate it from the physical structures. It is like having a hospital, building and the equipment but the people that worked there, they are the content. The department strictly address issues of the lecturers in the tertiary institutions.

Does the department have divisions?

Yes, we have three divisions as at January. The division are delineated in terms of interventions they are handling. We have Academic Manuscript into Books (AMB), Institution Based Research (IBR) as at January, and the Library Development Intervention. To bring effectiveness and ensure that activities of each area is under the right department, the IBR division has been moved to Research and Development/Centre of Excellence Department. Currently, we are having two division and the department is acting as secretariat to a committee called the Technical Advisory Group.

How exactly does the AMB works?

For most of our interventions, annually, there is an allocation to each of the tertiary institutions and is expected that the allocation should be used for that intervention line. For AMB, the Fund is encouraging lecturers to have their manuscript published. When they prepare their manuscript, instead of giving handouts to students, they can go through the processes and guidelines to ensure that the manuscript meet the standards and have it published. When they submit the manuscript in line with the guideline, we have our officers that will go through the manuscript to find out if it is in line with the guideline and if the quality of the manuscript is of standard. If all these are put in place, the first tranche of the 85 percent is paid to the institution to pay the publisher for transmitting those manuscripts into books. After the 85 per cent has been given, the staff of the Fund will go there to inspect if it has been published or printed in line with the standard given to them and if it is up to the quantity of copies they are supposed to produce. After that, with their report, the remaining 15 percent of the allocation can now be requested. It is called the second tranche.

Is the intervention aimed at phasing out handouts in our tertiary institutions?

That and to ensure that quality books are being produced in our institutions.

Are lecturers keying into this project?

Yes, most of the institutions are accessing that intervention. If they are accessing the intervention, that means that there is compliance.

What positive impact has this intervention brought in the nation’s tertiary institution?

When we were in school, that was when the invention was not in place, some of us had difficulties in getting textbooks to read. Even the handouts, some lecturers turned it into a business venture. But a situation where opportunity has been given to lecturers to turn the handout to books has changed the narrative. It is a good development. Also, the intervention has brought about the publication of quality books because from our guideline, you can’t just turn anything into a book. The books must be of quality.  Now, our students are not being taken advantage of any longer. Some lecturers then, will have like ten pages of paper and asks students to pay N5000 or more for it. That period, they didn’t have any choice because if they don’t patronise the lecturers, they will not pass. Looking at the current situation, students can have access to those books even at a very low amount of money. Also, the books published are not just limited to any particular institution. For example, a lecturer with a published book in University of Maiduguri can send his book to say University of Nigeria, Nsukka and other universities, for students to have access to so long as it is in their subject area. Even some of these books, are even sent outside the country.

Are these manuscripts published in Nigeria?

We are trying to ensure that our books are publish within Nigeria. We have a Technical Advisory Group. It is a committee to move the content base interventions. The committee was resuscitated by the current executive secretary, Prof Suleiman Bogoro. Under this committee, we have three committees; the Book Development Committee, the Professional Journal Committee and Academic Publishing centres. After coming up with the content, the publication of those books should be within the country. We have seven of these centres; one in each geo-political zone and one in the University of Abuja. The objective is that within that political zone, all the tertiary institutions within the area can publish their books there instead of taking it abroad. What we are doing is ensuring that the state of act gadget for publishing are installed in the publishing centres so that our books will be publish here instead of abroad.

What about the other division in your department; the Library Development. How does it work?

The Fund is looking at how to ensure that our libraries are of the state of art; where you have the numerous collections of books needed, the necessary equipment and the necessary furniture. We are also looking into electronic library; that is the e-library, where you have online journals and online text books. Students can go there to download the textbooks they need. They can also have access to internet, sit down with their computer and read text books that are relevant to their course of study. This intervention is a situation where the Fund is working so as to ensure that the library in our tertiary institutions should be at the current status of the library the world over. If our students move to any the institutions outside the country and they enter the library there, they should be able to see a replication of what they see in their own institution at home.

Do we have e-libraries in our tertiary institutions?

Yes, we do. When they are making their submissions, provision is therein that they can propose to procure e-library. When such submission comes in, this department is not working in isolation. We have our Information Communications Technology (ICT) department that works on the e-library, the equipment and the content that is necessary. It is jointly done. If any institution asks for it, then provision is made for it. Most of our institutions know the importance of e-library and are making submission for it. From our own end, we work in collaborations with relevant departments to make it happen.

What are the challenges the department face in its interactions with tertiary institutions?

The main challenge is the institutions’ level of faulting the guideline. It is following the guideline that guarantee they get the allocation. If you adhere to the guideline, there won’t be any problem in giving approval in principle or getting the first tranche. The situation we have often times is that they won’t go through the guidelines. Our officials that will do the vetting might see issues on what have been submitted and had to point it out. The back and forth might slow down the process. We have the guidelines. We have the soft and the hard copy of the guideline. They have free access to them, yet they won’t go through it.

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Secondly, some institutions do not follow the procurement process as being guided by the Public Procurement Act of 2007. TETFund is an institution that doesn’t want to go erring to the government regulations, ditto to our beneficiaries. We have to be sure that they are in line with the federal government guidelines. They do have challenges because they don’t go through the right procurement process. The process might fall short of the necessary transparency, fairness and accountability. TETFund being an accountable organisation query such admissions when we see them. In fact, sometimes, we ask them to go through the due process again.

As the department, working to ensure a standard library in the country’s tertiary institutions. How important is Library in tertiary Institutions?

The development capacity of any individual cannot do without the library because that is where you have collection of books both physical and online. When you have books, you are acquiring knowledge. When you acquire knowledge, you are thinking of how it is being done, how was done before and how it can be done better; linking to what we can call innovation, research and development of any institutions and also the nation. Library is a very important corner stone in our institutions. To that extent, even within the Fund, we have a library, where our staff go and sit down, get books to read and improve themselves. Library is a very important corner stone to development of an institution and even national development.

How have the department been faring under the leadership of Prof Bogoro?

We thank God for the executive secretary because the issue of content base gets more attention under the current dispensation. Before, the Fund was just focusing on physical infrastructure but now, we are moving towards content base. We are not leaving the physical infrastructure but it is now complementing each other.  The content base has been given more attention with Prof Bogoro. We are looking forward for more;  moving from glory to glory

Source: Leadership Nigeria