…It’s fraudulent means to commercialise education, enrich private varsity proprietors
The Academic Staff Union of Universities has kicked against the recent decision by the Federal Government to establish education bank for the purpose of advancing loans to students across the country.
ASUU has also alleged that the 70 per cent interest that would be generated from the bank would only be used to enrich private universities.
The union further described the education bank, which would give students access to loans for paying tuition fees, as a means towards the gradual introduction of the payment of tuition fees in public universities in the country.
ASUU had at the end of the just-concluded 63rd meeting of the National Council on Education in Abuja, which sought to generate fund for the education sector, rejected the decision, saying it was a fraudulent attempt to commercialise education in the country.
ASUU President, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, told our correspondent that the negotiation team, which was led by Dr. Wale Babalakin, was a fraudulent attempt by private universities in the country to rip off the public universities.
According to Ogunyemi, the private universities have made series of unsuccessful attempts to generate funds from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund and have now brought up the issue of student loan and education bank to make money from the poor masses.
He said, “We disagree; they brought this to our negotiation table with the Federal Government, which was a negotiation team headed by Dr. Wale Babalakin. We rejected it because they wanted to introduce tuition though the back door in the universities. By that tuition, they want to give students loan and that loan will be their tuition. The most worrisome aspect of it is that they will say that 70 per cent of the loan be directed to the universities and that money they will pay to the universities is to empower the government universities. That is a big lie!
“The sponsors of that proposal are geared towards making money for the private universities in order to empower them. They have tried TETFUND, private universities wanted to access fund from them, we fought them and said it was not possible. Now, they have shifted to this so called education bank.”
The ASUU boss said that members of the committee that designed the proposal were owners of private institutions looking for funds to equip their schools.
“Some agents of the education council, especially those that are close to government, are owners of private universities and some are planning to open their own. They want to do everything and anything that is possible to ensure they have a ready source of profit-making for all their universities,” he said.
He warned that the introduction of student’s loan and the education bank would never be accepted by the union.
Ogunyemi said, “This education bank is a fraud designed to enrich owners of private universities. ASUU has rejected it; we will continue to reject it and we’ll tell everyone about the spurious student’s loan that they want to give and the 70 per cent that will be given to the private universities.
“Their proposal is to make money for private universities so that they can enrich them. They know we have issues in public universities and they cannot have issues there and they cannot introduce school fees directly. So, they are going ahead to make money for private universities. It is a proposal designed by agents of privatisation of
education.
“They want to do it in such a way that education and tertiary institutions will be beyond the reach of the poor parents who constitute over 70 per cent of Nigerians. The private institutions know that without taking money from the government, they cannot make a scandalous profit they had planned. Some agents of education, especially those that are close to government, are owners of private universities and some are planning to open their own. They want to do everything and anything that is possible to ensure they have a ready source of profit-making for all their universities.”
He maintained that ASUU would continue to fight against the commercialisation of education in Nigeria to enable the masses to continue to benefit from the
system.
“Commercialisation of education is not in the interest of poor Nigerians. It is in the interest of the rich, the greedy and criminals, who have commercialised our nation. That is why ASUU will continue to fight every attempt to commercialise education in Nigeria,” he said.
Nigerian varsities need funds, not student’s loan
The ASUU boss, therefore, urged the government to forget about commercialisation of the education sector and invest in it, rather than exploiting poor parents and students, who have no means of paying back such loans.
He also stated that such system had been used in some foreign countries, but it failed and it would also fail here, too.
Ogunyemi said, “What percentage of graduates are employed in Nigeria today? These students they want to give loans, where is the job they will do to pay back the loan? This is fraud. The owners of private universities and those that are planning to establish their own want a ready source of income. They want to further kill public universities.
“That is what we have always rejected. You want to give loan to those you know don’t have the capacity to pay back. It is not reasonable. If you want to subsidise funding, why not inject the fund.
We have strong reasons to reject education bank and student’s loans as they have planned it.
“Nigerian students do not need loan; Nigerian government should let go of their greed. If they can release 50 per cent of what they are taking away in Nigeria, they will fund education system. We do not need student’s loans and education bank, as they are conceiving it. Places where they introduced education bank,
like America, have reviewed it because some of the students who they gave loans and didn’t have the
capacity to pay back; they pushed them too much, and many committed suicide.
Do you want that to happen in Nigeria?
We should not introduce policies that have failed before in Nigeria here. It is a fraudulent policy.
We will continue to
reject it.”
