Ndubuisi: Funding: A bane of tertiary education

THE crisis in the education sector is most apparent in the tertiary institutions, largely because of its place and importance in national development. Quality education, we must admit, is expensive all over the world. In pragmatic societies, the funding of education is borne by all stakeholders: Parents and guardians, philanthropists, the government and even the private sector. However, in our dear country Nigeria, education, like many other national institutions, is politicised.

Governor Fashola’s administration made a bold move in jacking up the state owned varsity fees which many criticised as outrageous. The increase was as much as 300% depending on the courses involved. Both students and teachers revolted against this. The government was adamant for a reasonable period until the entire experiment would be almost impossible to implement. The astronomical increase hit the operation of the school so hard that some departments could not find students to admit which, endangered the jobs of the staff especially academic staff.

Governor Fashola wisely responded to this threat to his public image and the fortune of his political party in the state and finally returned to the status quo bowing to popular opinion. This was at the last convocation ceremony of the state university, to the relief and jubilations of the students.

This volte face was unlike him. On all other issues, he has remained unyielding as long he was sure he was on the right course. But in this instance, the 2015 election is just by the corner and Lagos State is under a very serious threat by other political parties especially PDP. It will be a costly mistake if by action and inaction, he throws away the state to other political parties for whatever reasons. Besides, Governor Fashola must have thought too that the increase was both too high and untimely. In spite of this, he still promised to lift the standard of the only state university. How and when he is going to do that is what everybody is waiting for.

The Fashola’s experiment is one big opportunity the nation missed to test how fee paying state university could fare in terms of infrastructural development and quality of its products. The standard and quality of university education in the country is widely known to have plummeted from the early 80s till now. The rot set in at the height of the economic woes of the country, which incidentally coincided with the military intervention in government. Since then, the government has criminally neglected the educational sector and the tertiary institutions in particular. It is the negligence that Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been fighting against in the last 20 years with modicum success. The government both at the state and federal levels have always given unavailability of fund as the reasons for the poor attention to education. It was in the bid to remedy this situation that TETFUND the brain child of ASUU came into being. TETFUND, on its own, has raised billions of naira but it has failed to turn around the condition of the universities and other tertiary institutions . Corruption and the usual government bureaucracy have been blamed for it. The truth is that universities in the country are heavily underfunded and the trend is worse with states universities, which have been reduced to semblances of community secondary schools. Many state universities cannot even afford to pay the salaries of their staff on regular basis. Thus, our universities both states and federal are in complete ruins with both the students and teachers bearing the brunt. These have obviously affected the quality of our university products. The last strike by the ASUU is still fresh in memory. Not much was actually achieved by it, as insiders will testify. The infrastructure is old, weak and fast decaying and no longer fit and exciting for learning and research. As nothing substantial was achieved in the last strike, it is feared that the calm in the universities may just be for a while.

Perhaps the question to guide us to the right path is: Why are we afraid of exploring permanent solution to the issue of paucity of funds in the universities? It is understandable that the government, for political expediency, has avoided asking students to pay fees, no matter how marginal, because of its consequences and the level of poverty in the country. But have we forgotten that there was a time in this country we had students loan board? The board was there for indigent students that needed money to fund their education at the university level. This lofty idea came from Dr. Joe Irukwu (SAN). Like the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, the loan board was a creation of the Nigerian civil war. For, at the end of the war, many people especially from the eastern part of the country could not fund their education especially at the university level. University education was then a luxury especially for those that have just emerged from the traumatic effect of the war. Dr. Irukwu made a proposal to the Gowon’s administration on the need for such a board that had the potentials of not only to raise high level manpower for the country but saved our young ones that had the anxiety to develop their intellect. The project was a wonderful idea and many people that are in high and enviable positions today gained from it.

We suggest that government should revisit the Irukwu’s initiatives, and re-engineer it in the light of our current reality. With advancement in information technology, proper documentation and the progress made so far in the National identity card project, all the hiccups that were encountered in the earlier experiment can be avoided. It is obvious that the government cannot fund education alone especially as she has not seen it as a priority. The nation’s university communities are fast decaying; they are no longer exciting for learning and research. Students study under harsh, filthy and intolerable conditions. They attend lectures and even prepare for examinations in darkness. Sanitation is zero, as most of their eating joints are terrible places. We must take a rationale and prompt decisions to salvage the future of our young ones and the nation too. With improved and a more friendly environment, the products of our nation’s universities can compete with their counterparts from any part of the world .

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