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By Young E. Freeborn, Warri
As the 2022/2023 academic session gradually resumes at tertiary institutions across the country, parents of intending students seeking admission have cried out over the “exorbitant fees” being charged by various institutions in the country.
In a chat with our correspondent, one of such parents, who didn’t want his name in print, accused the federal government of making life too hard for poor people in the country.
Hear him, “There’s a saying that, if education is expensive, then try ignorance. But this is not the case with Nigerian tertiary institutions. The situation in this country now, portends that poor people like myself, won’t be able to train their children in tertiary institutions any more.
“Just to give you an example; my daughter just got admission into the Delta State School of Health Technology, Ofuoma-Ughelli. It’s a state owned tertiary institution to train middle class health officers. The school fee is around N200,000.00 and other fees amounting to N150,000.00. Outside this, textbooks gulped almost N60,000.00 and my daughter say all the textbooks are compulsory; that without the textbooks, they would lose marks in the said course during tests and examinations.
“As a peasant farmer, how can I afford it? Outside this very one, my son is also pursuing admission into DELSU. The case is the same. How can I train two of them when I also have other children in both primary and secondary schools? Does it mean I will sell myself to train my children in schools in a country where our leaders have announced to the world that education is free?”
He however called on the state government to “control most of the unnecessary and exorbitant fees charged by school authorities on students to reduce such fees in order to make education accessible and affordable to every child in the state and the country since, most of the schools in the state are public schools.
Also speaking on the same issue, was a notable community leader who also sought anonymity accused the Federal Government of denying Nigerian children affordable education.
“Education by our constitution and by the United Nations Charter on Education is a fundamental right of every child born in this country. Yet, poor people can’t afford education in this country. Those we have elected into power to rule us have nothing to offer us than to make life difficult for us immediately they get to the seat of power in this country. Nigerians at the moment are passing through economic crisis. We can’t even feed well; let alone sending our children to schools.
“But in all these pains and suffering, the rich and those in government are not affected. Many of their children are schooling abroad. Their purpose of being in government is just to make life hard for us and their purpose of making education expensive for the poor people is to make our government an inheritance for their children. This is to make their children continually be in the government, even after them,” he said.
The community leader again called on the Federal Government to look intently into the complaints of parents and students over exorbitant fees of public tertiary institutions across the country so as to make education affordable for the poor and the less privileged in the country.
