The amended act is welcome
In signing the newly revised Student Loans Re-enactment Bill, 2024 into law on Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu pledged that Nigerians who desire tertiary education would not be disadvantaged on account of their financial situation. “No matter how economically challenged you are, accredited and qualified students will and must have access to this loan to advance their education in higher institutions,” stated the president. He must now establish the Nigeria Education Loan Scheme (NELFund) to administer, manage, and invest funds specifically for providing loans to Nigerians pursuing higher education, vocational training, and skills acquisition, along with other related activities. He added, “There is no compromise in our commitment to the disadvantaged citizens of this nation.”
The earlier version of the Student Loan Act was repealed because of some salient complaints, particularly with the issues of governance and management, the purpose of the loans and eligibility criteria. Others include the method of application, and recovery of the loans. Predictably, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) also picked holes in the act arguing that the children of the poor would be burdened with loans and debt after graduating.
Even so, we subscribe to the idea behind the new legislation. At the root of this crisis of tertiary education in Nigeria is the lack of an articulated policy on funding. The weak financial conditions of most of our universities are exacerbated by the current crippling economic crisis afflicting the nation. Yet, besides personnel costs, funds are required to rehabilitate dilapidated facilities, purchase consumables and aid research. What ASUU and those who insist on free tuition in our public universities therefore fail to understand is that we cannot continue to train manpower for a free market economy at no cost to parents. Besides, many of the undergraduates in our public universities attended private secondary schools where the fees for one term were often more than the entire cost of a degree programme in our public university system.
For the sector to attract quality academic and non-academic staff, provide necessary teaching aids, and ensure conducive learning environment for students, the idea of tuition-free tertiary education for all is no longer realistic. In most countries where education is taken seriously, universities explore several ways of raising funds for their operations, without any attempt to reinvent the wheel. The common avenues include donations, endowments, professional chairs, gifts, grants, and consultancy services. Incidentally, the military government of General Yakubu Gowon dealt with the problem at the level of policy. The federal military government had the students’ loans scheme, work study programmes, scholarship schemes for indigent students, grants, etc. There were also bursaries at the level of states. Sadly, all these schemes have either been abandoned or compromised in their execution.
Whereas the schools Nigerians attend abroad even for non-degree programmes bombard them with requests for donations with mobilisers and fund managers engaged for that process, Nigerian universities are content with whatever they receive from government. Meanwhile, universities abroad don’t spend more than 40 per cent of their earnings on salaries which are decent. So, what we lack is ambition across the board, including sadly among lecturers. But we must state that the student loan act is just one of a cocktail of ideas that we need to address the challenge of inadequate funding for our tertiary institutions. While the idea is welcome, the real work will come during implementation.
