Polys to get N45.6 billion as intervention fund

Public polytechnics are to receive N45.6 billion under the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) 2016 normal intervention.In this respect, each polytechnic would smile home with N691.6 million while a college of education gets N671 million.

The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Dr. Abdullahi Bichi Baffa, dropped the hint yesterday in Abuja during a one-day stakeholders’ meeting with heads of tertiary institutions.

He, however, accused some administrators of diverting funds meant for teaching practice.His words: “The injection of the intervention is to support the supervision of trainee teachers to become professional.

“But in quite a number of places, head of institutions have conceded to the pressure from unions by just taking teaching practice allowance as welfare.

“Whether teaching practice is done or not, the money is just shared. This is not the intention of the intervention.”Baffa lamented that TETFund had been abused, pledging that the current administration would do everything humanly possible to ensure that the agency delivered on its various massive intervention projects, especially in the area of manpower development and research.

“We are still battling people who are running around as vendors and middlemen trying to buy allocation letters.“The days anybody will bring allocation letters from beneficiary institutions are gone,” he added.