Federal government has moved to end the dominance of foreign publications in the nation’s higher education institutions as it unveiled 10 new textbooks sponsored by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
Speaking at the public presentation of the books in Abuja, the minister of education, Malam Adamu Adamu, said the dependence on foreign academic publications portends great danger to the nation’s education sector, adding that boosting indigenous authorship would address the problem.
He said the paucity of indigenously authored and produced tertiary level textbooks and related academic publications in the nation’s tertiary education institutions is a known fact overtime.
Adamu, who was represented by the minister of state for education, Goodluck Opiah, said Nigeria’s tertiary education institutions became dependent on books published outside the country with the attendant consequences of the pressure on the demand for foreign exchange.
He said: “It is equally worrisome that the quality of most academic publications in our country leaves much to be desired. It is therefore expected that nurturing the culture of quality authorship and the production of indigenous books will not only ensure the availability of relevant books in the diverse subject areas that take cognizance of our local environment and sensitivities but will also safeguard national pride and reduce the demand for foreign exchange.”
He commended TETFund for establishing the higher education book development project to tackle scarcity of tertiary level textbooks which has before now reached a crisis proportion, while hailing the fund for putting in place the technical advisory group (TAG) whose mandate includes collaboratively working with the agency to ensure quality books are churned out by Nigerian authors.
Also speaking, executive secretary of TETFund, Arc Sonny Echono, who expressed delight over the quality of the 10 books, said additional 30 books sponsored by the fund would be unveiled before the end of the year even as he assured of the readiness of the agency to sponsor production of 50 textbooks in 2023.
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