Exorbitant fees in unity schools, federal institutions

THE need for higher education cannot be overemphasised in any country. It offers the platform for training students in various disciplines in line with their dreams and aspirations. The students give back to the society by practising whatever they have studied for the betterment of the nation. By federal institutions, we are talking about federal universities, federal polytechnics and federal colleges of education. There is no country in the world where education is totally free, but at least every government tries to make it affordable for its people. For some years now, there has been outrageous increment in the fees paid by students in some of the federal institutions across Nigeria. These fees include school fees, faculty fees, departmental fees and accommodation fees for those who are able to secure space in the halls of residence. Let’s take a look at the tuition to be paid by students of one or two schools for the 2023/2024 academic session.

At the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, the acceptance fees, according to the school’s portal, is between N25,000 and N30,000. For fresh students, the tuition fees range between N24,200 and N75,000 while it is between N19,200 and N75,000 for returning students. Bed spaces in halls of residence between 1996 and year 2001, when I was a student of the school, was N90. Halls of residence charged between N1,000 and N1,200. Today, students residing in undergraduate halls of residence pay N30,000 for bed spaces. Private halls of residence charge between N80,000 and N100,000 within the campus while boy’s quarters are leased for N200,000 also within the campus. The Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, has also adjusted its tuition and other fees. According to a recent release by the university’s Public Relations Officer, those in the Faculty of Humanities, Law and Arts will be paying N151,200 while returning students of the same faculties will pay N89,200. For Faculty of Technology, new students are paying N163,200 while returning students will pay N101,200. In all, the fees now range between N151,000 and N190,200 for new students and N89,200 and N128,200 for returning students. The managements of the University of Jos also announced that its fees has been raised from N45,000 to N213,000. Returning students are paying N160,000. That’s an increment of over 300 percent. Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba, in Ondo State, raised its fees from N35,000 to N150,000.

The case is the same in many other schools all over the federation. Many of these higher schools of learning are lamenting and are citing the prevailing economic conditions in the country as a major reason for the need to increase the fees, as it is not easy to cater for the needs of the individual schools while help from government is not really massive as it used to be. There is no way the schools can function well without money and the only way to get it is to task students and their parents. There have been cries from students against this outrageous increase but it seems all the cries fell on deaf ears. The police were deployed to the University of Lagos some days ago because the authorities were trying to prevent the students from protesting. Students offering non-laboratory course are to pay N100,750 while those offering laboratory courses are paying N140,250. Medical students will pay N190,250. The Federal Government had before now, declared that it cannot shoulder the responsibility of taking sole care for the federal institutions anymore.

It will also be recalled that the Federal Government announced a substantial review of school fees in the Unity Colleges. The fees were increased from N10,000 to N45,000. It is a fact that this will definitely affect all aspects and activities of the schools such as tuition, boarding, textbooks, uniforms and many others. Parents will definitely end up spending close to N200,000 if they are to put their children in these colleges. This calls for reflection in all honesty, because at this point in time, the increase in school fees whether in unity colleges or at the higher institutions should not have even been a subject of discussion. To feed in most homes is tasking as the removal of fuel subsidy has affected almost every aspect of life of an average Nigerian. Salaries do not come regularly and if care is not taken, many students will drop out of school. The salaries received by many parents are not even enough to cater for the needs of many homes anymore. The questions that come to mind at this juncture are: What will be the fate of the children of the masses who are mainly the one in these schools? How will a student working and schooling in a federal institution, who was initially struggling to pay the former fees, now cope?

There was an announcement by the Federal Government that there will be provision for students to get students’ loans but it came with stringent conditions which many felt a lot of students won’t be able to meet. Will it then be safe to say that these are ways to discourage the masses from getting good education as many of the children of the rich do not school in the country? Considering the excruciating times that accelerating inflation and economic downturn have caused, this hike will only subject parents and students to more hardship. Parents are dealing with increase in transport fare, surging electricity tariff and high cost of food items already! There is no gainsaying that this situation will compound the hardship more and if care is not taken, a lot of children will not be able to go to secondary school or higher institutions. This will resulting Nigeria having many semi-literate adults in future. The saying that ‘education is the best legacy’ should not be taken with levity as that is the best way to prepare the children for a great future which the country will benefit from. It is high time the government intervened and saw what could be done to make sure the regime of unaffordable fees is halted so that parents who already have children in schools won’t be forced to withdraw them and those coming in will be able to afford the fees. Times are hard already.