The House of Representatives has called on the Federal Government to increase funding for public tertiary institutions and pressure them to suspend planned increases in school fees, citing concerns that rising education costs could restrict access to higher education. The motion, sponsored by Ifeoluwa Ehindero, the member representing Akoko North East and Akoko North West Federal Constituency in Ondo State, was adopted at Tuesday's plenary. It raised alarm over the effect of rising tuition fees on students and the viability of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund scheme.
Several public tertiary institutions nationwide, including universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, have recently increased school fees and other mandatory charges, with some imposing increases of more than 100 per cent, according to details from the motion. The increases were implemented without broad consultation or sufficient consideration of the economic difficulties confronting many Nigerian families. Ehindero, who chairs the House Committee on NELFUND, argued that the Nigerian Education Loan Fund was structured around existing tuition benchmarks and that sudden fee increases could undermine its sustainability and effectiveness.
The lawmaker warned that unchecked fee increases could create significant disparities in education loan allocation, exclude students from less affluent backgrounds and frustrate the objectives of NELFUND in widening access to higher education. He cautioned that the trend could lead to increased student dropouts, campus unrest and loss of public confidence in the government's commitment to affordable education. Following overwhelming support for the motion, the House urged the Federal Government to consider raising financial subventions to public tertiary institutions to reduce their reliance on internally generated revenue from student charges.
The House also called on the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission to engage institutions' management to suspend fee increases and conduct a comprehensive review of tuition structures aligned with current economic conditions. It mandated its committees on university education, federal polytechnics and higher technical education, and federal colleges of education to investigate the extent and justification of recent fee increases across public tertiary institutions, examining whether the additional charges are warranted against the need to keep higher education accessible to students from low-income households.
For Nigerian families and students, continued fee increases could make higher education less affordable and increase reliance on the education loan scheme, which may struggle to meet demand if tuition costs rise faster than loan allocations.