Governor Agbu Kefas of Taraba State has called on Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to establish e-library, entrepreneurship training centres in higher education institutions in the state.
Kefas made the call during a visit to the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono, in Abuja, on Friday.
He also solicited for the establishment of Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres in the state.
The governor said: “I am here to solicit for the establishment of entrepreneurship centres in Taraba State to be able to train our youths to be self-employed.
“(I am here) to also ask for Computer Based Test centres to be able to accommodate more of our students in writing JAMB and other computer based exams in Taraba, and lastly to ask for an e-library in Taraba.”
“In my agenda, the priority is education, and if you look at our region educationally there is a major problem. We have huge human resources that are untapped and I have discovered that one of the huge reasons for insecurity is lack of education.
“They said in Taraba we have one of the highest numbers of out-of-school children, so if at the primary and secondary levels, we don’t harvest these children, we can’t even invest in the higher institution and you will discover too that your own job will be affected and that is why I declared free and compulsory primary and secondary school education in Taraba and by the grace of God when I am done with the plans I have on ground, I will like you to come and see what we are doing there.
“For the higher institutions, I have also discovered that a lot of our children that their parents cannot afford to pay their school fees, and some of them are dropping out of school. We have some students in school but they are not in school, they don’t attend classes, they are moving about taking all sorts of drugs, to reduce that I have to declare half of school fees in all our tertiary institutions.”
Responding, Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Echono commended the governor for his various efforts to uplift education in the state.
While promising to look into the requests of Kefas, Echono said TETFund has continued to deliver various intervention projects in both federal and state tertiary institutions in Taraba
