The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the students of Kaduna State University (KASU) have rejected the proposed 500 per cent increase in tuition fees by the government.
ASUU disclosed the proposed increase would not only force about 75 percent of the university’s students to drop out but also causing massive youth unemployment and restiveness
ASUU Branch Chairman, Dr Peter Adamu, decried that the consequences of the upward review of the school fees would be unquantifiable.
He urged the state government to rescind the decision, stressing that it was not the best time to increase tuition fees due to the present economic instability in the country.
Adamu argued that public education should not be for revenue generation and asked the government to look for other better ways of funding the system without unleashing untold hardship on the students and their parents.
On his part, the Commissioner of Education in Kaduna, Shehu Muhammad, defended the decision of the government, saying the amount being paid was no longer sustainable considering the enormous challenges of the school.
He explained that increasing the tuition fees was in line with current economic realities and not in any way aimed at unleashing suffering on the students and their parents.
Muhammad stressed that there was nowhere in the country where state universities received a token of N26,000 as school fees across the board.
He, however, hinted that the state government has created other social intervention programmes for the students, including scholarships and loan schemes among others.
According to the proposed new tuition fees, indigenous students studying social science courses are to pay about N150,000 while their counterparts in medicine and other science courses will pay between N170, 000 and above as annual fees
