Rising dropout rates, fee hike, student loan bill, other events that shaped education landscape in 2023
By Sodiq Adelakun
The education sector in Nigeria witnessed a significant transformation in 2023, leaving a lasting impact on the country’s higher education landscape.
The influence of this development on the higher education sector cannot be emphasised enough. It has propelled academic institutions nationwide into a new era of excellence, making Nigeria’s education system globally competitive and dynamic.
The once lackluster outlook of the country’s education has been rejuvenated, paving the way for a brighter future.
However, despite these advancements, Nigeria still grapples with significant challenges in its education sector. The national literacy rate, as reported by the Federal Government, stands at a modest 69 percent. Yet, beneath this seemingly promising figure lies a stark reality of regional disparities.
Disturbingly low literacy levels persist in states like Yobe, Zamfara, Katsina, and Sokoto, while the southern states boast significantly higher rates.
Shockingly, approximately one-third of primary school-aged children drop out before even reaching Junior Secondary School. This alarming statistic is particularly prevalent among female children from the Northern states.
In the same vein, a multitude of factors, including poverty, insecurity, kidnapping, child marriage, and religious extremism, continue to hinder the pursuit of sustainable education in the country.
Despite these challenges, there is hope on the horizon. The transformative developments in the higher education sector have laid a solid foundation for progress.
Nigeria’s predicament is due to misplaced priorities. The Northern elite are fixated on political power, exploiting religious sentiments while neglecting education. There, underdevelopment, terrorism and banditry, and sectarian violence are prevalent.
The current crop of South-West leaders have similarly jettisoned the region’s legacy of free education deployed in the old Western Region and its successor off-shoots. Literacy rates are falling and out-of-school children numbers rising. The onus lies primarily with the states, while the central government has the responsibility to back them with funding, national programmes and intervention programmes. Significantly, the Federal Government has several such support programmes but lack of seriousness by the states, corruption, and incompetence limit their success.
Several states in Nigeria, including Niger, Ogun, Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, and Edo, have failed to provide the necessary funding to access their 2018 Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) funds. This lack of commitment is hindering efforts to eradicate illiteracy in the country.
Additionally, the education sector in 2023 has been marred by strikes and incidents of student kidnappings.
Cases of Kidnapping
Nigeria has witnessed three mass kidnappings of students, sparking concerns about the security of educational institutions under President Bola Tinubu’s new administration.
The first incident occurred on September 22, when gunmen stormed the Federal University Gusau in Zamfara State and abducted 24 female students. While security forces managed to rescue thirteen students, eleven remain in captivity.
Just two weeks later, on October 4, suspected terrorists attacked the Federal University in Katsina and kidnapped five female students.
Then, on October 10, gunmen abducted four students from Nasarawa State University. These three kidnappings, all within a span of 19 days, have raised alarm among parents, teachers, and student bodies.
They also serve as a significant test for the Tinubu administration, which assumed office on May 29, 2023, with a promise to tackle the prevailing insecurity in the country.
Since the start of Tinubu’s administration, a total of 41 students have been kidnapped, despite some successful rescue operations.This number adds to the 204 students who have been abducted in 16 separate incidents since the beginning of 2023.
40% revenue deduction from Nigerian universities
The Federal Government has initiated the implementation of a 40 percent automatic deduction from the internally generated revenue (IGR) of federal universities and other partially funded public institutions nationwide.
This action is in accordance with a finance circular dated December 20, 2021, with reference number FMFBNP/OTHERS/IGR/CRF/12/2021.
The circular aims to restrict the annual budgetary expenditure from the IGR of partially funded federal government-owned universities.
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, addressed this matter in a letter dated October 17, 2023, titled ‘Implementation of 40 percent automatic deduction from internally generated revenue of partially funded federal government institutions.’
The letter was sent to the universities and signed by the Director of Revenue and Investment, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Felix Ore-ofe Ogundairo.
Hike in tuition fees
The exorbitant increase in tuition fees at public universities in Nigeria, which comes in the wake of the eight month-long strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) that ended early this year, has left many students facing the possibility of having to abandon their studies.
Universities have blamed the hike of between 100 percent and 200 percent on poor financial support by the government and rising inflation, University World News reported in January 2023. While efforts to implement scholarships for poor students continue, many students are uncertain about their future.
Student Loan Bill
President Bola Tinubu took a significant step on Monday, June 12, by enacting the student loan bill into law.
The newly formed Nigerian Education Loan Fund will oversee the interest-free loan program, which targets students with an annual personal or family income of less than N500,000.
Applicants looking to take advantage of the loan scheme would need to have guarantors in the form of two civil servants with a minimum of 12 years of experience or a lawyer with at least 10 years of post-call (to the bar) experience. While the student loan covers academic expenses like tuition and school materials, non-academic expenses such as student accommodation still fall on the shoulders of each student.
Additionally, the loan repayment will commence two years after completion of the NYSC programme, where failure to make payments could potentially lead to a two-year jail sentence and/or a N500,000 fine.
At first glance, the bill appears to be in service of fostering the development of Nigerian youths through education, but at further scrutiny, it begins to look like a tokenistic gesture aimed at accumulating goodwill from the general public.
With the bill aimed at improving access to education, it almost serves as an irony that the parameters for qualification are so exclusionary. Firstly, is the financial threshold required to qualify. A student from a family with two financial contributors making the minimum wage of N30,000 per month would not qualify for the student loan scheme which is an absurdity.
In addition, the guarantors required to qualify are people the target demographic likely have no access to given their socio-economic background, placing another huge barrier to entry.
Sexual harassment in Nigerian tertiary institutions
Several lecturers in Nigerian tertiary institutions have been suspended or dismissed due to sexual harassment allegations.
The dean of the faculty of law at the University of Calabar was suspended after female law students protested against him.
In May, a lecturer at Ambrose Alli University was dismissed for sexual harassment.
A senior lecturer at Kogi State Polytechnic was dismissed in March for sexual harassment and victimization of a female student. Two lecturers at the University of Abuja were dismissed in July for sexual misconduct.
In addition, a lecturer at Tai Solarin University of Education was arraigned for demanding sexual gratification from a female student to alter her results in 2021.
Rising suicide cases among Nigerian students
A 300-level student at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, was found dead in his room, having committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling.
The student, Joseph Olona, lived in an off-campus lodge in Akure. In a similar incident, a 20-year-old student at the University of Ilorin, Sani Hameedat, took her own life due to an unpaid loan of N500,000 from an online loan platform.
She was pronounced dead at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital. Another tragic case involved a 100-level female student at Nasarawa State University, Keffi, named Maikeffi Redemption Sarah.
She consumed a poisonous substance, resulting in her death. Sarah, who was 21 years old and studying Microbiology, ended her life due to overwhelming emotions and depression.
Olatunji Olayinka Emmanuel, a final-year student at the University of Lagos, also committed suicide.
The Gombe State Police Command confirmed the suicide of Abdullahi, a former gateman at Ryan Nursery School in Tudun Wada. Lastly, the management of Obafemi Awolowo University mourned the loss of Treasure Salako, a 100-level student, describing her death as a significant loss to the institution.
ASUU joins NLC, TUC, declares nationwide strike
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) joined the nationwide strike declared by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) on 13th November, 2023.
President of ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, gave the directive on Monday evening in a letter sent to all the union zonal coordinators and branch chairpersons of the union.
The letter read, “The Nigeria Labour Congress at a Joint National Executive Council (NEC) of NLC and TUC directed all affiliate Unions to commence withdrawal of services with effect from 12:00 midnight today 13th November 2023.”
