Students Begs Gov el-Rufai Over 500% Tuition Fees Increment

Students of Kaduna State University (KASU) have strongly appealed to the Malam Nasir El-Rufai led government to reverse the 500 percent increment in tuition fees, saying the hike will seriously affect their quest for higher education especially those of them from poor homes.

The students disclosed this in a statement issued and signed by President, National Association of Science Students (NASS), KASU chapter, Comrade Abubakar. L. Buhari.

Titled: An open letter to the Kaduna State Government on tuition fees increment on tertiary institutions (Especially KASU), the students stated that “the 500% school fees increment is a threat to the education sector and also to the education of the poor masses in the state”.

According to them, education is a civil and social right every citizen is entitled to acquire constitutionally.

They expressed surprise that KASU is trying to link increment of fees to the scholarship of N109, 000 they could not access.

The statement averred that from their records, only 2,310 out of over 21000 students have benefited from the Scholarships since 2017 till date.

They stressed that since the increment is premised on the Scholarships, government should use the money to fund the school.

The president expressed dismay that Kaduna State is the highest in all tuition fees charged in higher Institutions across northern states including some private universities using IBB University Niger State, Jigawa, kano, Sokoto among other states as examples.

Accordingly, they observed that with the retrenchment of student’s parent in civil service through rightsizing and those sacked without entitlement, many poor students are surely going to drop out in the midst of heightened fees and insecurity.

They added that many government officials, NGOs, religious and traditional leaders have been advocating for higher education, believing that good education would help the society to reduce social vices and criminality.