ETF's Book Development Fund launched
The guidelines for Education Trust Fund (ETF)'s N2 billion Higher Education Book Development Fund has been launched in Abuja
Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa'i, who launched the document, also announced the establishment of seven Academic Publishing Centres to serve each of the six geo-political zones and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The centres are located at the Federal Universities of Technology, Minna and Yola; Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto; Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, as well as Universities of Calabar, Lagos and Abuja.
When completed, she said, the centres will have the capabilities lacking in existing university publishing houses, such as e publishing.
The Minister said the centres are the third component of ETF's activities in leading government's effort to transform the country's education system.
The first is book publication for which the federal government last year directed ETF to set aside the sum of N2 billion as seed money. Under this, PhD theses that have been adjudged as outstanding by the National Universities Commission (NUC) will be published into books.
The second component is the support for academic journals. The Fund has therefore identified 50 professional associations across the broad strata of disciplines for support, to enable them produce journals of outstanding quality.
Rufai said government was willing to allocate more resources for book development. She therefore challenged researchers in tertiary institutions to take full advantage of the opportunity.
Among the objectives of the Book Development Fund listed by the Chairman of the ETF Board of Trustees Dr. Musa Babayo are: restoring and enhancing the capacity of Nigerian tertiary institutions to produce and circulate quality academic books and other learning materials; creating the capacity and providing outlets for the production of quality academic manuscripts, designing, constructing and equipping model academic publishing centres.
Executive Secretary of the Fund, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said ETF was determined to address the poor reading culture in the country. He expressed appreciation for the positive response of government to the many challenges facing the education sector.