Northeast tertiary institutions discuss takeoff of publishing centre

Public universities, polytechnics and Colleges of Education in the Northeast have met to deliberate on successful takeoff of their regional Academic Publishing Centre (APC) in the Adamawa State capital, Yola.

The Academic Publishing Centre for the Northeast is domiciled at the Moddibo Adama University of Technology (MAUTECH) from which publishing of text books and other activities will be linked to public tertiary institutions across the Northeast.

The Academic Publishing Centre in Yola is one of seven such centres, one in each of the six geopolitical zones and Abuja, established by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to function as model publishing centres in representative institutions across the country.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees of TETFund, Alhaji Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, who led the TETFund management to the Board of Trustees Engagement with beneficiary Institutions of the Northeast’s Academic Publishing Centre in Yola, said in view of the Fund’s determination to deliver responsive intervention programmes to promote innovative approaches to learning, the Board invited all the beneficiary institutions to deliberate on the best way of operating, managing, and sustaining the centre.

He informed the heads of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education who attended the meeting from Taraba, Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states that printing machines would be supplied to the centre in the next couple of weeks as part of the final steps for takeoff.

Executive Secretary of TETFund, Prof Suleiman Bogoro, explained paucity of indigenously authored and produced tertiary level textbooks and related academic publications in Nigeria’s tertiary educational institutions informed the establishment of the APCs.

“It is expected that nuturing the culture of quality authorship and production of indigenous books will not only ensure the availability of relevant books in the diverse subject areas that take cognisance of our local environment and sensibilities, it will also safeguard our national pride,” the TETFund executive secretary said.

Vice Chancellor of the host Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, Prof Abdullahi Tukur, advised institutions in the Northeast to collaborate to advance research and human development of the people of the Northeast.