Following President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s signing of the Student Loan Bill, the federal government plans to impose tuition fees on students attending federal universities, polytechnics, and other higher institutions, according to the Daily Trust report.
The measure, which is now an act of parliament, was signed on Monday. Many people welcomed the event without realising what the new law would mean for the millions of prospective students who rely on tuition-free higher education institutions to further their education.
This would have broader repercussions, according to stakeholders and education experts.
The cost of tuition at both the national and state levels of government schools in Nigeria, which can reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of Naira at private universities, is zero.
Even while various fees for other things like accommodations, departmental, and course registration, among others, vary from one institution to another, the situation hasn’t changed since independence.
Millions of students have been able to attend school thanks to the waiver of tuition, but experts claim that the federal government’s implementation of a student loan programme spells the end of tuition-free education.
The Federal Ministry of Education was silent at the time.
What the Act specifies
The Students Loan Act’s third clause states that “the loans referred to in this Act shall be granted to students only for the payment of tuition fees.”
The existing provision that states that tuition is free in public institutions is violated by this paragraph.
In the meantime, Chapter 2 of the modified 1999 Constitution states that the issue of tuition at Nigerian universities is a constitutional one. No publicly owned institution is allowed under the terms of that law, and it is prohibited for any one of them to charge tuition to any national.
The Student Loan Bill would give needy Nigerians simple access to higher education by way of interest-free loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, according to the Act establishing the law.
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund’s application process and loan awards to Nigerians seeking higher education in Nigerian institutions of higher learning are governed by the Act, as established by the National.
“All students seeking higher education in any public institution of higher learning in Nigeria shall have an equal right to access the loans under this Act without any discrimination arising from gender, religion, tribe, position or disability of any kind,” the act reads.
However, it was made clear that the applicant must meet all requirements and conditions outlined in the Act before a loan can be granted to a student under the Act.
In his reaction, the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, stated the Students’ Loan invoice shouldn’t be new because it has been on for a very long time.
According to him, “To the naive, it means relief but to my mind, I think it means higher charges are on the horizon for students.”
He stated: “A rustic place greater than 133 million reside beneath the poverty line and also you wish to introduce tuition charges? It can be counterproductive.
“Every Nigerian should know what is going to happen next and there may likely be another bill waiting for signature that will introduce tuition fees. If the bill indicated that the loan is to pay tuition fees and there are no tuition fees in Nigerian universities, then what is your next approach,” he requested.
He, nevertheless, famous that the union is but to have entry to the correct copy and that they wanted to get it and examine it.
“We have stated way back, in 2017, to President Buhari after they got here up with the difficulty of tuition charges, that each scholar pays N1 million and we stated you can not put that in our settlement and you can not use that to barter with us and with the character of the nation we have now right this moment, there isn’t any method that can work.
According to him, “To the naive, it means relief but to my mind, I think it means higher charges are on the horizon for students.”
