The House of Representatives has directed the
Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission (NUC) to
immediately abolish the payment of acceptance fees in tertiary institutions in
the country.
The directive followed the adoption of a motion
brought by the Hon. Chinedu Martins at the plenary on Wednesday, calling for the
abolishment of acceptance fee in tertiary institutions.
He said education as a necessary tool to unlock
human potential and drive national development, adding that the advancement or
otherwise of any nation is directly dependent on the number of its citizens who
have access to education, especially up to the tertiary education level.
Martins noted that a recent data from the NUC
showed that out of a population of over 180 million, only about two million people
are enrolled in the universities
nationwide, representing one percent of the population.
This, the lawmaker said, clearly indicated that the
proportion of the population attending tertiary institutions in the country is
low when compared to other advanced countries.
He stressed further that the additional data from
the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Joint Admissions and
Matriculation Board (JAMB) showed that between 2010 and 2015, of the 10 million
applicants that sought admissions into tertiary institutions, only 26 percent
gained admissions, indicating that about 75 percent of the applicants fail to
gain admissions every year, which is also reinforcing the fact that access to
tertiary education is low in Nigeria.
Martins expressed concern that one of the factors
contributing to poor access to tertiary education is the predatory admission
policies being enforced by tertiary institutions, particularly the requirement
for payment of non-refundable acceptance fees as condition for admissions.
The lawmaker lamented that many federally-operated
tertiary institutions charge as much as N30, 000 per student, while some states
and private institutions charge significantly more.
For instance, Martins alleged that the University
of Ibadan charges N35,000; University of Lagos, N20,000; Ahmadu Bello
University (ABU), N30,000; Imo State University, N70,000, and Lagos State
University (LASU), N20,000.
He expressed worries that applicants are expected
to pay the acceptance fees within a short deadline despite having gone through
the tortuous process of paying and sitting for the Senior School Certificate
Examinations (SSCE), the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) and
making the cut off mark, stressing that if they are unable to meet the
deadline, the applicants are surcharged for late payment with the risk of
losing the offered admissions.
According to him, "If the exploitative admission
practices of tertiary institutions in the country are left unchecked, the
aspirations of indigent Nigerians to study in universities will continue to be
cut short because of their inability to pay the acceptance fees."
In his submission, Hon. Dimeji Abejide said he believed
that all the House members representing their constituencies had access to
education, stressing that if they were not educated, they won't be in the
chamber contributing to the national development.
Abejide wondered why the universities being funded by
the government are still charging such fee, saying: "I don't know what
they are using this money for, and this issue of criminal way of extorting
students must be abolished."
The House, therefore, called "on the Federal Ministry
of Education and the NUC to immediately abolish the payment of acceptance fees
in all tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
"We mandate the Committee on Tertiary Education and
Services to investigate the admission policies and practices of tertiary
institutions in the country as they relate to the charge of acceptance fees in
order to remove all obstacles to accessing tertiary education in the
country."
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