The federal government, led by the APC, has stepped up the discussion on student loans that was started by Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Even though Nigerians were quite critical of the issue when it was initially brought up in public, it is now being discussed again.
It is alarming that the APC does not see that plans to make higher education tuition-free would be important steps in tackling the problem of widespread illiteracy in the nation.
The APC wants students to apply for loans to pay for further education in a nation where there is a high rate of unemployment and to start repaying those loans two years after completing their NYSC service. That the APC makes no effort to address the issue of inadequate funding for the educational sector is pitiful.
As against their claim, students loan does not in any way expand access to education. In fact, suggesting that institutions will now charge “cost reflective” tuition fees is sending a clear message to students and parents that the support services that enable students to access education and succeed in higher institutions of learning will no longer be provided by the government. The APC has shown that they are determined to leave students with high amounts of debt. Nigerians must resist this attempt to put them under the burden of eternal debt.
One could conclude that the Wale Babalakin Committee report is what the APC and their Presidential candidate aimed at enforcing. We all read how the committee recommended the introduction of high tuition of #1m and also suggested that an education bank that would grant loans to students for the purpose of paying the high tuition to be established. This is simply what the APC aimed at cementing by taking the hands of the government off education under the guise of education loans.
Their claim that the beneficiaries of the students’ loan must begin repayment two years after completion of the NYSC programme fails to put into consideration the obvious reality that a larger percentage of Nigerian graduates are unable to find jobs years after leaving school and that those with the initiative to start small businesses lack enabling environment to start a thriving business.
Nigerians would be afforded another opportunity at the poll to reject the APC and their plan of putting the burden of eternal debt on their strained shoulders.
Kazeem Olalekan Israel, Ibadan