Parents Lament, Begs FG To Review Tuition Fee Hike

More worried parents of Unity College students throughout the nation have urged the federal government to reevaluate the unexpected hike in their children’s tuition in an effort to make education more widely available.

In separate interviews conducted on Saturday in Lagos with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the parents made the decision.

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The Federal Government, through a circular issued to principals of unity schools across the country and sighted by NAN, increased the fees for new students from N45,000 to N100,000.

Small business owner Mrs. Mitchelle Uzor told NAN that, given the country’s current economic situation, it was impossible for children of low-income earners to pay such fees.

She asserts that the unification schools continue to be the common people’s best option for receiving a standard education without necessarily breaking the purse.

Mrs. Mitchelle claimed that learning about the rise had devastated her since she had been saving and planning for her son, who had just finished elementary school and was getting ready to enrol in a Lagos college.

A public servant named Mrs. Funmilayo Olubiyo condemned the situation and demanded that the fees be reviewed.

She claims that the current financial crisis is already too much to tolerate.

Before implementing such rules, the government should take low-income workers like bricklayers, vulcanizers, and other minor traders into account, she said.

Another interviewer, Olubiyo argues that while it is understandable for the government to seek ways to improve the schools by raising the tuition, it is inappropriate to push them entirely out of the grasp of the majority of people.

She advised the government to use money that was being withheld from fuel subsidies and other sources to fund the education sector instead, as this was still the only legacy it could leave the people.

Chief Adeolu Ogunbanjo, the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria’s (NAPTAN) deputy national president, also urged the Federal Government to reconsider the rise in tuition at its institutions as a way to support Nigerian parents.