The Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU said many students may be forced to drop out of school in the next two years over the recent hike in fees by varsities across the country.
The National President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke stated this in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
Osodeke 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.
“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?”
Recall that some public universities, in recent months, had increased their tuition fees over what was described as the country’s economic realities.
While some of them have made a downward review after protests by students, is afraid parents/guardians would find it difficult to pay the new fees.
According to the ASUU President, if such happens, these students would become willing tools in the hands of those who want to make the “country ungovernable.”
He said, “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?” he added.
Meanwhile, Osodeke asked the Federal Government to increase its educational budget “to at least 15 per cent from last year’s 3.8 per cent.”
