The National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, has called on the Federal Government to return the atmosphere of the 1960s and 1970s back into Nigeria’s education sector.
According to him, when he was a student in this era, the government was paying him for choosing to study. He said the government should increase the budget for education so the children of the poor can have access to education too.
The ASUU boss berated the hike in fees at various public universities, querying how the system expects parents who earn N30,000 as minimum wage to pay school fees of N300,000.
Osodeke, who was featured on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, expressed concerns about how parents are expected to pay such heavy fees in the current harsh economic environment saying, if nothing is done about the issue, about 40 to 50 per cent of university students would be out of school in the near future.
When this happens, Osodeke, explained that these students would become willing tools in the hands of those who want to make the “country ungovernable,” OsunDailyNG learned.
He said, “Today, universities are arbitrarily increasing tuition fees.
“Is that correct in an environment today where the 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?
“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.
“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 fee?”
The ASUU chieftain therefore called on the government to increase e its educational budget “to at least 15 per cent from last year’s 3.8 per cent.”
