Education on the Brink of Collapse (Opinion)
Any government system that is aiming to take education away from the reach of common men is a total fallacy. Virtually every government in Nigeria pretends to give education to the people in solidarity with the principle and theory of Awoism, but would Awolowo be remembered as rightly as he is if students had stayed home for six months and counting due to industrial action? Would his name be ringing bell if he had hike tuition fee as high as N350,000 or its equaivalent to the past generations?
Education sector in Nigeria has been commercialized and mortgaged. It is best understood as a venture by our government and its moribund state causing anxiety.
The recent hike in tuition fee in LASU and OAU that has led to students uproar all around is a sign of insensitivity on the part of government. It is unjust to ask a parent with minimum wage of N18,000 to pay N150,000 and above as school fee on ‘a’ child. It is an attempt to make majority of students drop-out and expose them to societal vices of many unimaginable proportion thus increasing illiteracy rates of youths, a legacy that is in total opposition to what Awolowo was known and applauded for.
Industrial action has become norms in the polity. If it is not an increase in tuition fee it will be failure of the government to agree to terms with lecturers just as we are seeing in Osun State-Owned Tertiary Institutions among others. One would wonder if we have ever had four successful run of academic session devoid of strike in the past 15 years in the country
Education does not need to be costly before it is qualitative. There is no benefit whatsoever that could have necessitated such skyrocket increase. Government should not lose the touch of humanity. They should not wait until their offices and secretariat are barricade before they know that their policy is evil on the masses. They should swiftly act and save the future of Nigerian students.
This is an article written by Bode Adeyemo who writes at www.naijatelescope.wordpress.com. You can reach and follow @naijatelescope on Twitter
