The President of the National Parents-Teachers Association of Nigeria, Haruna Danjuma, shares his thoughts with EMMANUEL OJO on the recent hike in tuition fees in tertiary institutions, among other issues
There has reportedly been a hike in tuition fees in tertiary institutions. How did NAPTAN receive this news and what are your thoughts on it?
The recent development does not favour the parents and will lead to an increase in school dropouts from higher institutions. About 67 per cent of the students in higher institutions are vulnerable students. Their parents cannot afford to pay the new fees. Some parents find it difficult to pay the fees. Some of the students sponsor themselves. Most of the students are vulnerable.
In a nutshell, more than 65 per cent of the students in our higher institutions are less privileged. So, with these new fees, I don’t think it will be okay for the parents. What that means is that some of our students will lose the opportunity of studying.
What do you think is the cause of this hike in tuition fees?
Well, if you can remember, the Academic Staff Union of Universities made their request to the then government because they wanted the university system to be upgraded, to have real teaching and learning materials at hand and the government kept toying with it until the time the government took the matter to court and the court passed the judgment in favour of the government, which forced the Academic Staff Union of Universities to go back to the classroom as they did without having learning materials available for them.
If you remember, the government said that they could afford to run the higher institutions; so, they want public universities to take care of themselves. This is what is happening now. So, it is now the responsibility of the parents to run the higher institutions. For the workers there, the government will be paying their salaries but talking of the learning materials there and upgrading the universities, it is now the responsibility of the parents through the payment of school fees which will not be okay with us because we pay taxes.
It is expected that the government will be responsible for making education available for our children, also health, agriculture and security. They are to secure us through the payment of these taxes. So, if the government has withdrawn the subsidy on fuel, it is expected that they use that money to make sure that our universities are adequately funded so that our children can enjoy an atmosphere that is conducive to learning. Also, the lecturers will have an atmosphere conducive to teaching.
Having noted that the hike in tuition fees is a result of the schools trying to fund themselves and provide learning materials in order to be in operation, do you think that is, nevertheless, justifiable?
It is not justifiable and that’s why I said that they are not being fair to the parents and of course, our students and they keep saying that our students are our future leaders. How do you expect a dropout to be a leader of tomorrow? Again, the fact that we are facing insecurity and the fact that some students in the universities are over 25 years of age, some are 30; some are even 40 years, if they miss such an opportunity (of having tertiary education), they will be back to the community and they will end up doing nothing.
The truth is that when that happens, the children who are out of class will become a problem to society and I want you to believe me that it will be very difficult for the regular students who are in the university because their parents cannot continue to pay. We know what is happening in our universities now and we, the parents, know how we squeeze ourselves (to pay tuition fees). As I’m talking now, you can go around and keep asking parents if they can afford that.
Don’t you think the student loan scheme will serve as a cushion to the challenge of paying high tuition fees?
When they talked about students loan, with the conditions they put to acquire the loan, how many parents will be able to meet up with that? Who are those that can be guarantors or referees for such students? They also said that when students had completed their NYSC scheme and began to work, they (students) would start paying back or the parents would start paying back. How will they get the money? How will they raise the money to be paid back? In Kano State, we have people living below the poverty level. How will they pay back? They can’t even give themselves a three-square meal and there’s a family that has two or three children in the university. They are managing themselves and trying to see that their children are educated. How can that (paying back student loans) be possible?
So, in a nutshell, there is no difference between privately owned schools and government schools because they have now turned themselves into private schools. That is why we are calling on the government to think twice; it will not work. They are indirectly depriving some of the students of the opportunity of attending classes and that will cause more problems to Nigeria.
Regarding students loan and the terms and conditions, are you saying that indigent students were not considered in making such a policy?
I want you to believe that you can hardly have a good number of students that can meet up with the guideline. You cannot. You are talking about students the family earn N500,000 per annum and if you look at most of the students, they belong to vulnerable families, they live below N200,000 or N500,000 per annum as required and where will they get money to start paying the loan? How will they also sort their everyday expenses on campus and care for themselves? We cannot get that yet in Nigeria. Most of the students can’t get a guarantor for them to get that loan and when they even finish the course they are studying, how will they get a job? There is no available job waiting for them and government did not say that for those who have taken the loan. There will be automatic jobs for them; so, we are waiting to see what will be the outcome.
Are you suggesting that the loan came prematurely and there were structures or other things that the government should have settled before putting the loan in place?
I think the government should use part of the (fuel) subsidy money to equip the institutions and take care of the lecturers. Again, instead of giving free education at basic education, let the government allow us to take care of our children at primary and junior secondary school and then use part of that money to subsidise the school fees, at least to pay half of the school fees for every student at the higher institution. They should use part of the money to equip the universities, look into the agreement with ASUU and pay part of it so that the lecturers can face their job squarely.
If the government can do that, I’m sure that the schools will be well equipped and our lecturers will be able to carry out their duties but with the kind of situation we have, we don’t have enough teaching materials. Some parents are even squeezing themselves out to give their children foreign education by taking them to Ghana, Sudan, and the like but why can’t we do what those countries have done? Why can’t we equip our universities? Which of those countries are better than us? The way we do things is that our government is not interested in the education of our children. They only take care of themselves and their children. It’s convenient for them for their children to be able to study abroad, in America, China and other developed countries but have left our schools virtually empty.
Most of our teachers that have appointments abroad happen to be the best; we have the best teachers and lecturers in Nigeria and doctors, you see them fly out, from Sudan to America. Those countries send agencies to come and recruit them here because they know who they are and they know their values and that’s why we have lost most of them and they are doing very well there. Let government think about it and do more in our educational system
Do you think subsidy removal influenced the hike?
The removal of subsidy resulted in the high cost of everything, including the cost of living.
It was reported that the universities lack lecturers; secondary and primary schools are also lacking teachers. To what extent will you say that the brain drain has impacted the educational system?
Let them bring that agreement and have a roundtable agreement with ASUU and make sure they do the needful. If that is not done, more teachers and lecturers will leave our country and more lecturers will leave for the private institutions. Many business personnel have gone into establishing private schools and private universities. So, it is going to be a big mistake for our leaders in Nigeria to shy away from what they have to do.
If really they want to have our children as leaders of tomorrow, they should think twice and make education a priority. In any country that plays with education, if you want to bring down the government, you don’t have to use AK47 (rifles) or any weapon, all you need to do is to bring down its education. They will fight each other; they will kill each other because education is something that can make one a better person; education is something that can make a country a good one. Instead of saying that they can’t afford education at higher institutions, they should rather change the system of government.
This is something very important that we can repeat over and over again. Let the government do what they have to do for tertiary institutions and let it have a second thought. The issue of loans is nothing to any of our children. I have three children in our universities and the fourth one is getting prepared to be admitted into the university.
One of my children is in a state university, the second in a federal university and the other one is attending a private university of which I know how I squeeze myself and deny myself of many things in order to meet up because their responsibilities are on me. So, I have to be up and doing to make sure that I can take care of my children. As a parent, if the children are not taken care of, they will become a problem to the society. So, education has to be prioritised as number one. There are some people who can afford education for their children outside Nigeria but what about those who cannot?
For those who went abroad to study and are successful, what will they be coming back to do? They wouldn’t like to come back because they sponsored their education there. They can’t come back here to be molested and underrated. What will happen to those Nigerians that cannot afford such education? The hiking of varsity tuition fees will be bad because we will be having school dropouts and like the saying goes, ‘An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.’
There was a recent report that made the rounds, where JAMB had alleged that one of its top scorers in the 2023 UTME manipulated her original score from 249 to 362. Having to hear about such practice at the secondary school level, what does that portray of our educational system?
I want to believe that it is about the issue of the computerized systems that make our children feel that so far, they can edit anything and the system allows them to do that. It is practically the school system that enables them to do that because they have not done what is needed to be done and the examiners and exam bodies are not doing things the way it’s supposed to be done.
Nobody can get to that level successfully. As I told you, the government has to sit down and think about how to run education. If she did that, what will be of her when she gets to a higher institution? It will be more dangerous and as the probe is on, it will serve as a lesson to those that want to engage in such an act.
What is your advice to parents on how to guard their children against such an act?
Parents have to be part of children’s education and I want you to know that we have a forum for parents in institutions, even in tertiary institutions. It is to let parents know what’s happening to their children, how they are being handled and what the lecturers are doing to them because at that level, the children are on their own.
If you are talking about students affairs, the school management has that already but we need to have a body as we have in our constitution that will be in every higher institution, looking at what is happening, from our lecturers’ side to our children’s side and all the issues of marks for money, bullying, cultism and all happening to students on campus. The parents’ body needs to see what is happening there.
Some have also attributed the yearning for good scores through malpractice to be a result of parents’ influence. What’s your thought about that?
No, I don’t think so. No responsible parent will support a child to do such. Parents who encourage their children to be involved in any manipulation are destroying the child.
What’s NAPTAN doing at the moment to intervene in the sudden hike of tuition fees at our tertiary institutions?
In the first place, we agreed to approach the matter at the Ministry of Education because if you are talking of the National University Commission and so, they are under the mother ministry which is the Ministry of Education. So, going to NUC may not solve the problem; hence let it be handled at the Ministry of Education. Also, regarding the issue of this loan, it’s either we go to the National Assembly or write our grudges and complaints to Mr President himself. Anyways, that will come after our meeting and from there, we will take it up.
