EDITORIAL
ASUU and the government should start painstaking talks about the funding of public tertiary education
Last Friday’s suspension of strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) provides another opportunity for critical stakeholders to begin finding solutions to this menace that continues to damage public education in Nigeria. As we have repeatedly stated on this page, we understand what ASUU is fighting for, even when we disagree with their method. Whatever may be their justification, it is a disservice for lecturers in our public universities to make themselves synonymous with perennial strikes. There needs to be a more mature way of driving collective bargaining while maintaining basic services.
The hurried academic calendars which usually follow these all-too-frequent strikes allow for very little attention to serious studies while under-funding the education sector has had collateral damaging effects, such that our universities have now become grotesque carcasses of their former glorious selves. But ASUU must also embark on soul-searching. To the extent that commercialisation of academic grades and poorly written handouts, delayed dissertation, award of questionable degrees and all manner of unwholesome practices are now commonplace on campuses, lecturers in our universities must also accept that they are complicit in the problem of education in Nigeria.
At the root of this crisis is the lack of an articulated policy on funding public education in the country. 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 usually more than the entire cost of a degree programme in our public university system.
To resolve the perpetual financial crisis in the university system so that our graduates can compete globally in the knowledge world, we must examine alternative sources of funding. While financial assistance for poor but bright students could come in form of scholarships and bursaries, the idea of tuition-free tertiary education for all is no longer realistic. For the sector to attract quality academic and non-academic staff, provide necessary teaching aids, and ensure conducive learning environment for students, some people must bear the cost.
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.
Many of our public universities have been conditioned to believe only government should fund them without even seeking the help of their alumni members. 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% of their earnings on salaries which are decent. But all of these are too much work for ASUU and university administrators. So, what we lack is ambition across the board, including sadly among lecturers. Our elite public schools can’t even boast of the infrastructure of some community colleges in the United States, and we want to compete in the 21st century.
Now that the latest strike has been suspended after eight months, ASUU must collaborate with government and the enlightened voice of the public to find reasonable and feasible solutions to the funding of public tertiary education. Such a solution must include reasonable tertiary fees and student support facilities on the basis of merit and need.
