Tuition Hikes: ASUU hints 50 percent of University students may become dropouts

*Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities expresses worries about the current regime of increments in tuition fees, especially in public universities across Nigeria

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Recent increases in tuition fees for students in some tertiary institutions have continued to generate unease among stakeholders in the education sector in Nigeria, as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is also worried about the development in the concerned institutions across the West African country.

The academic union has projected that increments in students’ payable fees may force millions  students out of school.

ConsumerConnect reports several tertiary institutions, especially public universities, including the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, in recent months increased their tuition fees due to what they described as the country’s economic realities in Nigeria as of now.

The development has ignited students’ protests in these institutions, which have made some of them to make a downward review after such protests by students.

Now, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, National President of ASUU, is has expressed concerns, stating that several  parents/guardians would find it difficult to pay the new increased fees in these universities.

While featuring on a Channels TV programme monitored in Lagos,

Osodeke said: Universities are arbitrarily increasing tuition fees.

“Is that correct in an environment today where the (National) Minimum Wage is N30,000 per month, and where they have to pay rent and pay heavily for transportation? And you are enforcing this thing on the students?”

The President of ASUU stated: “As a result of this – I can assure you that you can check if nothing is done about this heavy fee being introduced all over the country today – in the next two or three years, more than 40 to 50 per cent of these students who are in school would drop out.”

Osodeke also noted if such happens in the country, these students would become willing tools in the hands of those who want to make the “country ungovernable”.

Measure to address crisis over tuition fee increments

The President further said:

“That is what we are saying: create the environment we had in the ’60s and ’70s.

“When I was a student, the government was paying me for being a student.

“Let’s have an environment where the children of the poor can have access to education, not closing them.

“If you say school fees of N300,000, how can the children of somebody who earns N50,000 a month be able to pay such a fee?”

In order to remedy the current regime of increases in tuition fees situation, Prof. Osodeke urged the Federal Government to increase its educational budget “to at least 15 percent from last year’s 3.8 percent”.

Federal Government appeals to lecturers, students and parents

Recall the Federal Government, amid the situation in the Nigerian universities as students prepare to resume, Friday, September 22, 2023, appealed to students, lecturers and parents to not engage in any act that would disrupt the smooth flow of the academic session.

Tanko Sununu, Honourable Minister of State for Education, made the appeal when the leadership of the Congress of University Academics paid him a courtesy call in Abuja, FCT.

Sununu states that the show of restraint in this regard would be in the interest of all stakeholders and the stability of the University system.

He expressed concerns that strikes and non-use of facilities in the Universities could lead to rapid infrastructural decay.

He, however, assured the stakeholders, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would do everything to avoid strikes in the tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

He also said that the Federal Ministry of Education was having a constructive dialogue and consultation with stakeholders over the welfare of students and staff as well as the provision of infrastructure in tertiary institutions in the country.

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