Recent hike in registration and tuition fees has engendered tension in many tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Some of these institutions increased their fees by over 100 per cent. For the Bayero University, Kano (BUK), for instance, old students in the Faculties of Arts, Islamic Studies, Law, Social Sciences and Management Sciences pay N95, 000 while new students pay N105, 000. The old fee was said to be about N39, 000. For those in Clinical Sciences (MBBS) and Dentistry, returning students pay N160, 000 while new students pay N170, 000. Every new student is required to pay N10, 000 acceptance fee before being screened. Foreign students pay higher fees.
For the University of Benin (UNIBEN), the story is the same. Science students who reportedly paid N73, 000 before, are now required to pay N190, 000. Non-science students who used to pay N69, 000 now reportedly pay N170, 000. The charges took effect from the 2022/2023 academic session. Some other universities which reportedly increased their fees include the University of Maiduguri, Federal University, Dutse in Jigawa State, Federal University, Lafia, Nasarawa State, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike in Abia State and the University of Uyo. In the recent past, tuition fee in public universities was less than N20, 000 per session.
For many of these schools, the hike in school fees is as a result of the high inflation in the country. The cost of laboratory consumables, maintenance of facilities as well as teaching and learning materials has more than doubled.
Besides, our public universities have suffered poor funding over the years. At an average of between five and seven per cent, Nigeria’s annual budgetary allocation to the education sector, for instance, is grossly inadequate and falls far below the four to six per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recommended.
Countries like Ghana, Kenya and South Africa allocate far more resources to education than Nigeria. In Kenya, for instance, the education sector received a total of Sh628.6 billion, being 27.4 per cent of that country’s budget for the 2023-24 financial year. This is the largest share of the national budget and is even an increase from the Sh544.4 billion allocated to the education sector last year. In South Africa, education spending for 2021 was 18.42 per cent. In 2022, it was 19.75 per cent.
The poor funding of education in Nigeria has caused enormous damage to our school system. Oftentimes, academic and non-academic staff unions in our universities embark on strike to press home their demands for welfare of their members and better funding of public universities.
In many of these public universities, libraries and laboratories are antiquated; hostel and lecture halls are dilapidated and inadequate. As Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had also noted, teaching facilities like interactive boards are non-existent.
As expected, students have protested in such universities as the University of Abuja, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, the University of Maiduguri and the University of Taraba. The protesters requested a reversal of the hike in fees. Many parents are also worried. There are fears that some of these parents may be forced to withdraw their children if the new high fees are not reversed.
To partly tackle the education challenge, President Bola Tinubu recently signed students’ loan bill into law. With this law, it is expected that students should be able to obtain loan with which to pay their school fees. The fear though is that obtaining the loan may not be easy for many indigent students as they may not be able to meet the conditions for obtaining it. Many of their parents are poor, earning N30, 000 as minimum wage. Besides, ASUU and many other stakeholders fear that the loan may lead to further astronomical increase in school fees, which may lead to the withdrawal of many students from school. Only students from rich parents can afford the fees of the private higher institutions. The poor students rely on federal institutions for higher education.
We acknowledge the difficulties varsity authorities face in running their institutions. Obviously, what they get in terms of funding is grossly inadequate. They should think out creative ways of generating funds on their own. We believe that increasing their fees to meet up with the high cost of things in the country today is ideal. But this increase should not be such that will impact heavily on the finances of poor parents. Schools should also be ready to accept part payment of these fees, as not many parents can afford to pay at once. No child should be denied the chance of acquiring higher education because of high cost of fees.
It is true that it costs a fortune to acquire quality education in many advanced societies. But, with about 133million people living in multi-dimensional poverty in Nigeria, it will be difficult for many parents to pay the exorbitant fees that are being introduced. Since the Federal Government has removed the subsidy on fuel, it should plough back the proceeds to education and health. It should inject sufficient funds for the revitalisation of public universities in Nigeria. For a start, the allocation to education should not be less than 15 per cent of the annual budget.