High cost of living: More school fees burden on parents

By Adesina Wahab

When his son was offered admission by the Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA, Ondo State, Michael Olufemi did not expect what he got as the fees to pay for sundry items. First, he had to pay N50,000 Acceptance Fee for his son, and when the university’s portal was opened for the new students to start registering, he got a bill of over N108,000. Just a couple of years ago, Grace Alade, who was admitted by the same school, paid N20,000 as Acceptance Fee and for others, she paid less than N45,000 to register as a bonafide student of the university. Things have changed.

However, the increase is coming at a time that the country is experiencing stagflation, a situation described by economists as a combination of high inflation and economic stagnation. Recent government policies to kick-start the economy such as the removal of subsidy on petrol, have also worsened the economic conditions of parents.  

Many tertiary institutions in the country have hiked service charges such as Acceptance Fee, Hostel Fee among others. For instance, at the University of Ibadan, UI, the Acceptance Fee has been jerked up from N37,000 to N50,000. At the University of Maiduguri, new students are to pay N252, 000, instead of N131,500. The University of Uyo is asking students to pay N107,750. At The Polytechnic, Ibadan, students who are not staying in the hostels have Hostel Fee to pay, it has been increased from N5,000 to N15,000.  

Why the new charges and fees - VCs

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin, UNIBEN, Prof. Lilian Salami, who doubles as the Chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Universities of Nigeria, recently   delivered a keynote address where she raised the alarm that the Federal Government could no longer fund tertiary education. According to her, the poor funding of education is evidenced in the low budgetary allocation to the sector. Citing the example of her university, she stated that while UNIBEN spends an average of N77 million monthly on electricity, it gets N11 million monthly subvention from the FG.

She proffered a solution; to wit: the university must find a creative way to run its system. While admitting that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND once in a while showed up to intervene, Salami lamented that the intervention was not 'robust' enough and made comparison of the nation’s education budget with some of her neighbours.  “Nigeria’s 2023 education budget was 8.2% of the 2023 budget,  Ghana allotted 12.8% in 2023, and South Africa allotted 18.4%.  At UNIBEN, we’ve undertaken the cost of training a student in each department. It takes N3 million to train a medical student per session, but such a student pays only N240,000 over six years. Interestingly, this amount is far less than what is paid in a private secondary school; some of us pay as much as N380,000 for our children in creches per term. Students must pay commensurate fees for their courses of study. We must pay for services rendered.”  

 Students react to fees  

Recently, the authorities of the Edo State-owned Ambrose Alli University, AAU, Ekpoma, hiked the fees payable by students to the consternation of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS. The student body did not waste time to call on Governor Godwin Obaseki to take another look at the matter.  

NANS’ National Vice-President, Inter-Campus Affairs, Egbeahie Vanessa, in a statement said: “NANS   condemns in totality the outrageous over 300% increment in tuition fees by Edo State Government at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma. We condemn the attitude of the state governor towards tertiary education in the state and his ambition of wanting to take education beyond the reach of the poor and average citizens of Edo and Nigeria in general.  

“That this current state government has not laid a single building foundation in the foremost state-owned university is shocking.  

The last three years in the university has been about victimization of staff and students, intimidation and threats to whoever dares to speak up against the non-conforming and anti-educational policies of Edo State Government aimed at full indirect commercialization of state-owned tertiary institutions.

“To this extent, we are passionately appealing to parents and prospective students who are financially enabled enough not to encourage the new fee regime by hurriedly paying in line with the heartless deadline by the university management. In solidarity, as we plan an all-out engagement with the school management, we are appealing to parents and prospective students to show solidarity by staying away from paying the outrageous fees.”  

What we want - Parents

Parents, under the aegis of the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria, NAPTAN, said government should take steps to alleviate the suffering of the masses. The National President, Alhaji Haruna Danjuma, said: “Let the government give tax relief to private school owners. They need it because of the pressure on them regarding providing facilities and taking care of their workers. Remember that at all levels of education, private schools are more than public schools at all levels. institutions  

“For public schools, government should use part of its gains from the removal of oil subsidy to boost education at all levels. Parents are under serious economic crunch and putting more pressure on them would mean more students would drop out of school. And this is a country that is battling to curtail the menace of out of school children. If you look at those involved in kidnapping, banditry, and other crimes, they are mostly people who should have been in senior secondary school or tertiary institutions.”