Kaduna varsity officials sing different tunes over increase of tuition fees to N500,000

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Kaduna State University (KASU), Adamu Nuhu Bargo, has debunked the news in the media that the institution has reviewed its tuition fees from about N26,000 to the tune of N500,000, calling on students, parents and the general public to disregard such reports.

However, this comes after the Vice-Chancellor Academy of the institution, Prof. Abdullahi Ashafa, acknowledged the reports on the tuition fees increase by the State Executive Council.

Ashafa had earlier confirmed the development as reported by some media outlets, explaining that the university required huge funding to efficiently provide the needed quality education and skills that would make the students useful to themselves and society.

He said the tuition fees were increased to enable the school management to generate the needed funds to deliver its mandate, and appealed to the students to be law-abiding and not to take laws into their hands in a quest to seek reversal of the increased fees.

Meanwhile, in a press statement published on the school’s website on Monday morning, Bargo said although the school Management had the intentions of reviewing its tuition fees upward with specific fees on each course, no specific figure had been announced.

He maintained that the figures being reported in the media was false, noting that the school authorities had met with the students of the University on Thursday, April 22, 2021, and enlightened them to dispel fears, as the general public would be informed on any new developments.

Meanwhile, the students of the institution had kicked against the move for the upward review of the tuition fees, after their meeting with the school authorities on Thursday.

The students had alleged that the institution disclosed that the state government would increase the tuition fees from between N24,000 and N26,000 to between N150,000 to N500,000, which caused an uproar on social media and was criticized by the public.

According to the students, the tuition fees was increased from N26,000 to N150,000 for students in the Faculty of Arts, Management and Social Sciences, while the tuition fee for Faculty of Medicine was increased from N24,000 to N300,000 for indigenes and N500,000 for non-indigenes.

The students described the increase as “outrageous” going by the current economic hardship being faced by parents and the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and called on the state government to revert to the former fees.

Commenting on the development, a former President of the Kaduna State Students Union and a Medical student, Abdulrazak Shuaibu, said, “Currently, most students find it difficult to pay the N26,000 fees with a few dropping out of school eventually, while some female students had to resort to prostitution to be able to pay.

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“This is because a majority of us came from poor homes with our parents struggling to feed us and pay our school fees. Moreso, we are yet to recover from COVID-19 and the state government is increasing school fees. This is unfair and unreasonable.”

He noted that although some of the students were enjoying the state government scholarship, the beneficiaries were less than 5,000.

“This also means that the government is giving us scholarship and collecting even more from us as tuition fee. We, therefore, reject the scholarship,” he added.

Also, the Secretary-General, National Association of Kaduna State Students, Adonalo Stephen, pointed out that most parents were being sacked from the civil service, a development that had already thrown many families into economic crises.

He appealed to the state government to reconsider its stand and revert the tuition fee to the old rate so as not to deny many youths in the state university education.

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