A University don, Prof. Peter Ogedebe has urged the Federal Government to, as a matter of necessity, extend the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to private universities and polytechnics towards enhancing research development in the country.
Ogedebe, a Professor of Computer Science, Baze University in Abuja, made the recommendation on Tuesday during his 2nd Professorial Inaugural Lecture in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the lecture was titled: “Software Development: Who Owns the Life Cycle?”
He said that the fund should include the private institutions to also enhance staff development.
“it is unfortunate that private tertiary institutions are not being carried along in the Tertiary Education Trust Fund because of the erroneous belief that they are making money.
“Therefore, excluding these institutions from the fund is not the best.
“They should also be given grants so that they can train the lecturers who are helping in training our youths, the future leaders and for research development,” he said.
He said many of the private institution owners established the schools out of patriotism, hence, the government should not leave the responsibility entirely to them.
“If not, they will be passing the burden to the parents considering the economic situation of the country,” he said.
Ogedebe also recommended, among others, the introduction of a course to be called “Practicum’ with three credit units in the nation’s schools.
“Since courses are independently taught by different lecturers in the universities, it is appropriate to create a course (any course title) combining Programming (either C++, Java, Python etc); Systems Analysis and Design; Database; Networks at 300 level, second semester that will enable students to put knowledge gained into practice.”
He said the title of his second inaugural lecture was to address the problems associated with application software to our daily lives.
“I need to state that, like faulty buildings that collapse and lead to deaths, faulty software become unsafe and may cause bodily harm or lead to casualties.
"As in building construction, software not properly designed will not stand the test of time.
“I always emphasize to my students and colleagues that the essence of a good research is to solve a problem in the society.
“Any research that does not solve a human problem is no research,” he said
Also speaking, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Kathleen Okafor, said users have to be involved in the formulation of software.
The VC, who described the lecture as epoch making, said the school had contributed greatly to learning in many areas, particularly in Computer and Applied Sciences.(NAN)
