Education is a right

AFFECTED by the pains of flawed government policies, Nigerians are contending with a new reality. These are the unusual and astronomical fee hikes by institutions of learning in the country. While private schools usually charge higher, even public institutions are now involved.

Education is a right. So, every decent society ensures that its citizens are educated to the secondary school level.

As the 2024/25 school session rolled in this September, the Lagos State Government announced N100,000 as the new fee for the state-owned secondary boarding schools. The boarding fee per term was previously N35,000.

After an outcry, the state government said in its defence that the increase in boarding fees in its model colleges was inevitable “to ensure a better welfare of the students.” It stated that the N35,000 boarding fees paid since 2021 were unrealistic in 2024.
Apart from Lagos, many federal universities in the country have continued to announce an increment in tuition.

The University of Ibadan recently announced a hike in fees. The hike, which led to protests on the part of students, has also seen more students crowdfund for school fees on various social media platforms.

Earlier this year, students at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, protested the increment in fees by the institution’s management.
In 2023, the Tai Solarin University of Education, the University of Lagos, and the Obafemi Awolowo University raised their fees. The schools counter that they have no choice amid dwindling funding and rising costs.

Recently, certain federal institutions were disconnected from the national grid owing to failure to pay electricity bills. The institutions blamed their inability to pay on the paltry allocations from the government.
In a country where the minimum wage is almost worthless because of inflation, many indigent undergraduates who are not interested in obtaining a student loan might soon drop out of school. That will be catastrophic.

At 20.1 million, Nigeria has the second highest out-of-school children population in the world per UNESCO. Crises persist all through the primary, secondary, and tertiary education levels.

But education is critical to development. The World Bank says, “Tertiary education is instrumental in fostering growth, reducing poverty, and boosting shared prosperity. A highly skilled workforce, with lifelong access to a solid post-secondary education, is a prerequisite for innovation and growth.”

In today’s knowledge-driven global economy, therefore, everything should be done to revive and strengthen the education sector.

When the administration of President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of the petrol subsidy, it noted that the money saved from the subsidy would be channelled toward the education sector.
In many countries all over the world, citizens enjoy a certain form of subsidy in one way or another, either via education, feeding, or transportation.

The hike coincides with higher transportation costs. From about N600 per litre in August, petrol now sells at N865 to N1,200/l. This has forced many parents struggling with the hikes in tuition to withdraw their wards from school. It is not a matter of quality or preference anymore: parents are relocating their wards to schools within walking distance to escape the jump in transportation costs.

The fee increments are astronomical and too sudden. The universities should drastically reduce them and introduce increments in small percentages.

Children should not be denied education because of their low economic status. Therefore, the federal, state, and local governments should provide multi-layered funding for students, especially grants, and partial and full scholarships. Bursaries by state governments should be automatic for students. Supported by NGOs, philanthropists, and faith-based institutions, the Federal Government should make its loan scheme available quickly; states and LGs should follow suit, but it should not be the main source of funding for tertiary education.