Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. It is assumed therefore, that everyone needs some level of education to function in an organized society. The quality and affordability are a different ball game entirely.
The Federal Ministry of Education formulated an educational law that all Nigerian children should be given equal education opportunities. An Act (of 1974) provides that no State can deny equal opportunity to education to any individual for any reason.As such, education is on both the Concurrent and Residual Lists of the Constitution, making it the responsibility of the federal, states, andlocal governments, who are in charge of primary education.
As the states get stiffened in their finances, they resort to scampering to every sector to shore up their revenue base. Unfortunately, the education sector has not been spared. However, should education be a revenue generating platform for governments? The reasonable answer will be an emphatic NO. Education is a micro variable that has direct macro effects on the system.The implication of inadequate funding is scary. Education, as a matter of compulsion, must be funded, yet it must be accessible.
The problems
Prior to Nigeria’s independence, the country had only two established post-secondary institutions, namely, Yaba Higher college (founded in 1934, now Yaba College of Technology) and the University College, Ibadan, now University of Ibadan, founded in 1948. Those were the days before population explosion and the democratisation of education.
Going by the available statistics, Nigeria has 43 federal universities, 48 state universities, and 79 private universities; 170 universities providing tertiary education.There are also about 82 federal polytechnics and 38 state-owned Colleges of Education.
Our tertiary institutions are underfunded.Over the last three decades, we have witnessed a gradual degradation in infrastructure, quality of teaching staff, abilities of graduating students and access to qualitative education. Our successive governments have not done enough in funding the sector, with the federal government spending about7% of its overall budget on education. The states are not doing any better.Some have argued that this is largely due to the fall of oil prices or the instability of the market, and the need to reduce the huge and rising debt service obligations of the governments –federal and states. But are these excuses sufficient to price education above the reach of the populace?
The Lagos and Ondo Scanrios
The Lagos State government had to reverse itself after the outrage that followed the sky-high hike in fees in the state-owned tertiary institutions, particularly the Lagos State University (LASU) five years ago. The attendant crisis upon the astronomical increase of tuition in the Ondo State-owned institutions, particularly the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko last year, (the crisis has resurfaced and most of the state institutions are presently shut),is a clear reference of how not to price education. The state government and the university management have had running battles with the students and their parents in the last one year. Below was my intervention and advice to government when the crisis started:
”First, we must acknowledge the fact that the government is intent on increasing the fees and naturally, students will always want the status quo to remain, (I’ve been there before). And I’ve always argued, not every governor can act like Olusegun Mimiko, who left unchanged a fee regime (less than N30,000) for 8yrs, for reasons of his convictions of education as a social leveler, which must not be priced above the reach of the common man. However, I must concede the fact that the Akeredolu administration has a right to review extant policies in line with its own developmental trajectory.
Now, my piece of advice is that the government should not introduce an increment that will make life unbearable for the students and their parents. I suggest a gradual and graduated increment of say 10%-20% of existing fees annually over the next couple of years. That way, it will be a fair and realistic deal. A kii fi ojokansosoboomo t’,obaruyo. It will be uncharitable and a disservice to social equilibrium if any astronomical rate is forced on the students suddenly.
‘Every change must change something’, I agree, but this change must come with a human face.”
A working framework
In countries where tertiary education is paid for, the governments put in place financial frameworks to assist students through education loans, grants and outright scholarships. In many cases, students are allowed to work within reasonable time frame every week to be able to take care of themselves and aspects of their education. These aren’t available in Nigeria, therefore burdening parents with the huge responsibility of fully funding the education of their children.The cash and carry system that we run has made the acquisition of education increasingly difficult for the less privileged. In other climes, you don’t need to have money to go to school. States owe it as a duty to its citizens.
As a form of intervention, every Nigerian must be made to contribute, indirectly, to the funding of education through minimal direct taxing of every purchase within the country. Unlike the Value Added Tax (VAT) and other sundry taxes, this one, like the Education Trust Fund (ETF) is dedicated strictly to funding education. This way, the burden is shared and light.
Governments at all levels should put a deliberate seal on monies payable by every student at the various levels of institutions.The future of any country lies in the quality of its education. Education remains the major tool for national socio-economic development, individual socio-economic empowerment and poverty reduction.
It is a lazy argument to think that the way to improve education is to make tuition expensive. Education is a social capital that requires investment and commitment from governments.Wanting to solve economic problems with financial proceeds from education is like taking one step forward and two backwards. Even if it pays off in the immediate, it will certainly backfire on the long run.
Education must be accessible and affordable. Our government must solve its economic problems without this easy but dangerous path of incessant tuition increments. A people not educated will destroy the structures you are building. No man can give what he doesn’t have. The search for the future lies in education.I conclude with the golden words of Tai Solarin:
“Knowledge is light,
Forever, it will be light,
To guide humanity,
As ignorance is darkness . . .,
Equip yourselves with armour of light,
For our mission to the world,
Is to bear the torch aloft,
And cry with all our might,
That knowledge is light…”
Dayo Awude
Dayo Awude, a socio-political analyst, writes from Akure
