The Tertiary Education Trust fund, TETFund, says it will be making necessary adjustments in its disbursement guidelines on teaching practice after consultations with the Ministry of Education.
Executive secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono, noted that the adjustment is necessary considering the inclusion of the student teachers and faculties of education which has impact on the fund’s disbursement policies and processes.
Echono further said the methodology employed in the computation of the allowance by the fund and that of the Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission appear to be different, hence the need for harmonization to achieve shared acceptance.
The TETFund boss spoke at a one-day workshop on “Emerging Areas of Students Needs in Beneficiary Institutions’’ organized by the fund for leaders of colleges of education, on Tuesday in Abuja.
“While the Fund, as approved by the Board of Trustees, provided a 3 days Duty Tour Allowance to supervisors, based on the civil service recommended rate and a transportation support based on grade levels, the Salaries and Wages Commission provides for the payment of monthly stipends to supervisors and students-teachers at approved rates irrespective of rank or grade level and without provision for transport,” he said.
He had earlier disclosed that TETFund recently received a communication from the Ministry of Education regarding the Presidential directive to TETFund on the support of teaching practice and the recommendations of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission regarding the teaching practice allowance, which now includes Faculties of Education in Universities.”
According to him, “As a directive of government, the Fund is obliged to comply and implement the content and spirit of the directive,” stressing, however, that the issue requires collective brainstorming that may lead to the reworking of the teaching practice funding template currently in use.
The TETFund ES also charged lecturers overseeing career centres in colleges of education to develop skills in modern technology and pass on relevant knowledge to students to make them employable and competitive with their peers globally.
He said “Let’s make sure we make the sacrifice of training ourselves because this former way is not going to last; there are new ways, new skills in communication, don’t make your students as analogue as we are, let them be able to compete with their peers and stay on top of the game with cutting-edge that has become normal in other countries.
“It is not just about the content of what we teach in our various schools, it is also about how we have prepared our graduates, our students for them to be able to teach in our various schools or became employable when they leave the various institutions.”