TETfund: Addressing The Scarcity Of Text Books In Higher Education

The importance of quality, quantity and diversity of books in shaping the society cannot be overemphasised.

Experts have identified book publishing as an effective vehicle for development and positive change in the behavioural attitude of the people, the nerve centre of education and helps people to gain full control of their environment.

A Professor of Mass Communication, Lai Oso once said “Book Publishing is a serious business, a benchmark of a nation’s education, one of the basement blocks in cultural building, and an important index of national development.”

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The former executive secretary of TETFund, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro lamented that there is critical paucity of indigenously produced tertiary level textbooks and related academic publications in the nation’s tertiary education institutions, saying it was worrisome that the quality of most academic publications in our country leaves much to be desired.

To combat this trend , the Book Development Fund intervention was deliberated created by the Fund with the aim of restoring the culture of research and high quality academic publishing within the higher education subsector.
The book development fund initiative of TETFund is designed to address the dearth of quality locally published books and journals through revitalizing of professional academic publishing and thereby promote the consumption of locally published materials in our tertiary institutions.
The book development fund was to intervene in three areas namely, development and publication of academic books and the conversion of theses into books; support for professional association journals, and the establishment and sustainability of Academic Publishing Centres (APC).
In order to ensure successful implementation of the Higher Education Book Development Project, the Board of Trustees of TETFund in the year 2009, set up the Technical Advisory Group: (TAG) whose mandate included collaboratively working with the Fund in fine tuning the Book Development Blue Print Document into Strategic Working Document that clearly spells out the administrative procedures, frameworks and guidelines for effective TETFund Higher Education Book Development Intervention Funds in Tertiary Education Institutions in the country and reviewing the document(s) whenever the need arises TETFund Book Development Fund intervenes in the three key areas of publication of academic books and the conversion of high-quality theses into books, support for Professional Association Journals, and establishment and sustainability of Academic Publishing Centres (APCs).
In 2009, a renowned academics, Professor Charles Aworh was appointed chairman of the TAG to ensure adequate production of indigenous academic textbooks, with an initial approval of N2bn for Book Development Fund, to take off the project.
Today, the Fund has achieved a milestone as the sponsored books project is yielding a remarkable milestone in the TETFund’s Higher Education Book Development intervention, targeted at essentially addressing the crisis of paucity of reading and learning materials in Nigeria’s higher educational institutions.
At the public presentation of the first set of 10 books written by Nigerian Scholars and published under the sponsorship of the Fund’s Higher Education Book Development Project, the minister of education, Hon Goodluck Nah Opiah 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.
He 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.
“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.
“Scarcity of tertiary level texts books in Nigeria has reached a crisis proportion as evident not only in the quality of books available but also in the quantity of books produced locally. The need to tackle this crisis head-on resulted in the establishment of TETFund Higher Education Book Development Project,” he said.
The Minister noted that so far seventy-seven manuscripts have passed through rigorous review processes by distinguished scholars and are ready for publication as books.
“I want to assure this gathering that an additional thirty books would be presented before the end of this year under TETFund sponsorship program.
“It will be of interest to note that over 60% of these books are to be published by the Academic Publishing Centres (APCs) established by TETFund
“Teaching and research depend on relevant instructional materials such as published books and journals, monographs, and other specialized reading materials as well as e-publishing of books and journals, ladies and gentlemen, the Government is giving more attention to publication through TETFund in a bid to provide adequate indigenous learning materials in our Tertiary Educational Institutions for national development and improve the global ranking of Nigeria’s Tertiary Institutions,” he said.
The Minister expressed hope that the presentation of this set of books which will herald subsequent presentations under the Higher Education Book Development Intervention will attain the desired objective of bridging the gap of indigenous authorship, book publications as well as enhance efforts towards the achievement of the Education for Change: A Ministerial Strategic Plan (MSP) which is the Road Map for the education sector in Nigeria.
He further Distinguished invited guests, I cannot conclude this address without recognizing the unflinching support and encouragement the Ministry of Education is receiving from the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR). I want to reiterate that the administration of Mr. President recognized the place of education as the main driver of national growth, hence the commitment in funding, massive infrastructural provision and policy reprioritization towards content development and capacity building of the staff of our Public Tertiary Education Institutions.
Also speaking, Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc Sonny Echono, expressed delight over the quality of the 10 books, saying that 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.
“We have over 66 manuscripts, what we are unveiling today were published by only one publisher (one printing press). by the time we unveil the remaining 30 in December, you are going to see all the authors cut across the three layers of our tertiary education institutions,” Echono said.
The TETFund boss also revealed that the Fund has provided support to ensure all the Academic Publishing Centres in the country become fully operational.
” There are seven of them across the country, when we came in March only University of Lagos academic publishing centre was fully functional and running, a few of them had little issues, some equipment, other contractual issues, we have resolved all of them now.
“Four has been completed since the last few months and the remaining we hope to finish by the end of September. The issue of operationalising them, making them self-sustaining is the debate we are having currently because we want them to run as business enterprise and trying to create balance by focusing on academic publishing and being able to sustain themselves,” he said.
On his part, Chairman of TETFund TAG, Professor Charles Aworh, said 20 TETFund sponsored textbooks were published in 2014 on different fields with wide acceptance from within and outside the country, adding that three of the 10 new books unveiled today were from PhD theses.
He, however, called for more empowerment of the nation’s publishing centres. “We are on course to publish 40 books before the end of the year but the only challenge is the capacity of our universities to publish. Authors are ready to publish, manuscripts are ready,” Aworh said.
The books include, Principles of Veterinary Surgery: A Concise Text for Veterinary Students, Fundamental of Chemistry, Fundamental of Public Finance, Java for Beginners and Web Design and Programming for Beginners.
Others are, The Comparative Method and Civil – Military Relations, Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics for Engineers, A Guide to Teacher Competence Evaluation, Financial Deepening and Economic Growth in Nigeria and Motivational Factors and Teachers Efficiency in Secondary Schools.