Tuition and qualitative education
Following wasteful expenditure of the Nigerian government in the deployment of the country’s resources, the current administration and its predecessors have often pushed the narrative that tuition is crucial to reverse the dwindling fortunes of tertiary institutions, writes Head, Education Desk, IYABO LAWAL
WITH average Nigerians living on less than one dollar a day and their representatives in public offices enjoying ostentatious lifestyles, the idea of increasing tuition or having tuition at all is considered amoral. The argument is that public figures like the president, vice president, governors, and lawmakers, among others send their children to high-end private or foreign institutions while they allow public schools in Nigeria to deteriorate both in terms of academics and infrastructure. In view of this, Nigerians want free education up to the tertiary level.
Life as a Nigerian, they assert is pitiable as citizens have to provide their own community roads, water and generate their own electricity. More than ever before, public analysts claimed that it has become increasingly difficult for parents to fund the university education of their children. Also, as Nigeria struggles in the face of economic instability, the issue of the federal government’s sole funding of university education and payment of tuition has come to the fore a g a i n . That, however, did not sway Prof. Benson Osadolor’s view that tuition in public tertiary institutions should be reviewed as he was quoted as saying: “It is justified, of course, in terms of quality and the cost of education that we give to our children. University education in a country like Germany is free. Germany has enormous resources; the state actually contributes 100 per cent to the resources of the university system. We also have industries and foundations supporting the government’s efforts. This explains why they have high standards and good resources, particularly for teaching and learning.
“Here in Nigeria, a third-world country, the resources are not there. Students are crammed into very small lecture theatres. In some cases, they have no chairs, no benches, and tables. Do you think this can continue? No. We should sit down and reassess our future and the future of higher education in this country and think of what we can do to support the government’s efforts. We do not have foundations, institutions or organisations committing their resources to fund higher education in Nigeria.”
According to him, the government being the sole financier of public tertiary institutions is responsible for their workers’ salaries being owed for months.
“So, if there is an upward review that will create opportunities for us to manage resources very well in the interest of our students that will be great. I know that the school fee(s) of some universities is about N14, 000, N12, 000 and so on. And in some cases, for those in (departments of) Medicine and Pharmacy, it is a little bit above that. You look at the phones that students’ use, the clothes they wear, it is more than that. But we are just asking for a slight adjustment that will provide facilities and resources for our students,” the professor argued further. Strong arguments he presented but the public has continued to assert that it is the corruption of the country’s leaders that led to the financial straits the country is in. For students and their parents or sponsors, Osadolor’s strong views are unsympathetic and capitalistic – and can lead to a repeat of what happened in 2010 when some students went on rampage. In February of that year, irate students at the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, had reportedly gone on rampage setting ablaze supermarkets, fuel stations, and raiding banks – protesting the hike in school fees from N26, 000 to N76, 000 for full-time students and from N30, 000 to N100, 000 for part-time s t u d e n t s . In October 2016, the students again protested what they called a 400-per cent increase in tuition. Their grouse was that the fee was increased from N47, 000 to N160, 000 for some faculties and N200, 000 and more for others.
Just as students lament the insensitivity of the Nigerian government, so do workers of tertiary institutions. For example, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for five months in 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1996, went on strike because the government would not provide enough funds to run the institutions. They downed tool again for three months in 2001; two weeks in 2002; six months in 2003; three months in 2007; four months in 2009; five months in 2010; three months in 2011; and six months in 2013. Funding and tuition payment are some of the most contentious issues to deal with in Nigeria’s educational system – be it at the primary, secondary or tertiary level.
A few years ago, a Committee on the Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies headed by a former Head of the Service, Stephen Oronsaye, had recommended how federal universities can be salvaged from financial haemorrhage. One of the Oronsaye panel’s recommendations that caught the eye is the introduction of school fees in federal universities. To the former civil service boss, the government’s tuition-free policy is a reason there is a decline in the quality of standards in tertiary education.
According to the committee, the non-payment of tuition deprived federal universities of adequate funding, which could have been used to provide much-needed infrastructure and educational materials. The Oronsaye committee asserted that while it would be difficult to introduce tuition in federal institutions, the need to do so was inevitable to save tertiary education system from the doldrums.
The committee indicated that it cost N450, 000 and N525, 000 respectively to train arts and science students per session in Nigerian universities, therefore, recommending that the government should, over a five-year period, stop funding universities – the University of Ibadan, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo University and the University of Benin – with effect from 2013. “Unlike in other climes where universities are rated among the best in terms of reputation and academics, the existing government tuition-free policy exempts undergraduates in federal universities in Nigeria from paying school fees. The consequence of such a policy is that federal universities have been denied adequate funding to contribute to quality education in terms of infrastructure and educational materials.
“The committee is, therefore, of the strong opinion that tuition should be reintroduced in federal universities. The committee is aware that the reintroduction of tuition would be very challenging having operated a free tuition policy for many years. Nevertheless, it is an inescapable reality that all stakeholders must have to face,” the Oronsaye committee hard argued in its report.
It also sounded a note of warning why the federal government should not drag its feet over the matter: “This is because deferring the action would be tantamount to setting a time bomb that will ultimately go off somed a y . ” The federal universities were urged to complement their funding by looking for alternative funding. By the middle of 2017, it was reported that at least 38 Nigerian universities had increased their school fees because of poor funding by the federal and state governments.
The Chairman of ASUU, University of Ibadan Chapter, Dr. Deji Omole, later noted that public education is not taken seriously because most children of the rich and top government officials do not attend tertiary institutions in the country.
Prof. Des Wilson of the Department of Communication Arts, at the University of Uyo, shared his view on the matter: “My opinion is that we do not even have tuition in the federal universities. The only thing that is approved by the government is for students to pay N45 for accommodation, though the universities have found some other ways of getting around that challenge. We know that the space that is occupied by a beggar on the street is more than N45, let alone school accommodation.
“The question of review is a matter that is for the conscience of Nigerians. Let parents be involved and pay something more, no matter how little. If they are talking of reviewing to compete with Covenant University or the American University in Nigeria and charge millions, they will hit a brick wall because as teachers, we will not support that kind of situation. They will tell us that they are ready to pay. But these are people who are privileged, while there are millions of Nigerians who do not have the wherewithal to pay those fees.” Speaking further, he suggested that the federal government should provide a national loan scheme through national university banks, where students who cannot afford to pay school fees can get loans to fund their academic dreams.
“They will then get money to pay their fees and have some kind of arrangement that by the time they graduate and begin to work, they will pay back such money,” Wilson added.
With four years of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration coming to an inevitable end, not a few education experts think that there are much grounds to be covered in terms of providing sufficient funds for education and remedying the fallen standards. While it is generally accepted that education is power, the Nigerian government has continued to allocate a sum of money stakeholders consider too small to drive the needed development in the sector. The commitment of a government to a sector is gauged by the financial commitment it makes for that sector in its budget. In the 2017 budget, the government allocated the sum of N398 billion to the Ministry of Education while it allocated, in 2018, N435 billion, representing 7.04 per cent of the total budget. Therefore, analysts in the education sector feel that a government in deficit to the tune of N800 billion to universities for NEED assessment revitalization funds and over N60 billion as Earned Academic Allowances to lecturers, budgeting N398 billion for the whole education sector should not be taken seriously. They feel there is crisis ahead. Many administrations – not just Buhari’s government – have made sure that the education sector does not receive the desired budgetary allocation. It has always received an allocation below the United Nations’ benchmark of 26 per cent. Thus, it is evident that education is being underfunded in Nigeria.
Dr. Wale Babalakin once argued: “There have been serious plans for education to be free at all levels. My position is that if there’s a choice between free education and good education at all levels, I choose the latter. It requires N1.2 million on the average to thoroughly teach a properly accredited course in the university. With the population of about 40,000 at UNILAG, we require N48 billion per annum. We are able to attract about N10 billion or N11 billion from the federal government.” Whatever the arguments for or against payment of tuition in higher institutions may be, the governments and individual public office holders have not demonstrated that they can be entrusted with the common wealth of the people and have been deemed to be wasteful with what is already committed to them. In view of that, the issue of whether to pay tuition or not will continue until governments become more responsible, prudent, accountable, transparent and effective; with a commensurate improvement in the standard of living of many Nigerians.