Students of the University of Ibadan protesting recent hike in tuition fees
In the past ten months, many universities campuses had been embroiled in one crisis after another over increasing costs of higher education.
This unrest across campuses has not only disrupted the peaceful environment necessary for academic pursuits, research and teaching for which they are known for; but has the capacity to extend the length of time most undergraduates and even graduate students are supposed to spend to acquire their degrees.
The hike of tuition fees in many universities is the reason for the tensions on many universities campuses. Just last week, students of University of Ibadan went on protest to register their displeasure with the hike in tuition fees.
According to reports, some courses’ tuition fees jumped from N50000 to N100000, while some courses that were fixed at N70000 were increased to N150000. This is what is relatively obtained in many public universities.
NATIONAL WAVES views this disturbing wave of tuition hike as not only insensitive but also a warning signal that the current administration is not ready to foster and promote the development of learning and education of the citizens. It is a widely held belief that no society can develop without education, but it would the current pointers are not showing evidence that government buys into the creed of the necessity of education as a sine qua non for overall development of the nation.
In a society where poverty rate has become proverbial, living and earning standards have dropped to an all time low; it’s disquieting that the same government that is responsible for the hardship in the land through its economic policies could go to the irredeemable level of adding to the woes of parents who have to pay for the hike.
An average worker with four children earns less than a hundred naira, and with skyrocketing increase in transport fee, and the cost of feeding, electricity and other necessities above what an average Nigerian can afford, one wonders what is currently going through the mind of parents who have children in public universities.
The university already has enough problems associated with the grievances of ASUU, NASU and other bodies which are still subsisting, hot and threatening to tear the system at its seams. No wonder tertiary education has become a caricature given that many of the best minds have left Nigeria for a greener pastures abroad. It is a rarity in our universities to come across current journals and in most cases across campuses, recent thinking and texts in various subjects are not available.
One would think this deplorable state of affairs of public universities would have exerted action towards remediation from government, but it would seem the reverse is the case.
National Waves urges the current administration to intervene in the many sore points, most especially in the area of tuition fees hike.
Government should take drastic action to prevent social unrest. These students, even on campuses beg for food because of the current hardship; putting additional burden on students has psychological implication, and has the capacity to disorient their psyche. Without the federal government intervention, many students may be forced to drop out of school.
The argument by the federal government that it has put students’ loan in place is not strong enough. The reality is that not all students will have access to the loan given the reality of politicization of everything in the land. There’s a need to save public universities from total collapse.
