Parents across Nigeria are facing another financial burden as schools reopen, with private institutions increasing tuition fees by between 30 and 40 per cent.
Checks by Vanguard showed that families are having to spend more on tuition, books, transportation and other school-related expenses as the new academic session begins.
Private Schools Increase Tuition
In Lagos, a private secondary school in the Ipaja area raised its tuition from ₦86,000 to ₦124,000 per term.
Another school in Egbeda increased its fees from ₦250,000 to ₦320,000 per term.
The increases are not limited to Lagos, with reports from other parts of the country indicating that parents are facing similar adjustments.
Even parents whose children attend public schools are not completely shielded from additional costs.
In Lagos, people without formal employment who cannot obtain tax clearance certificates now face a ₦20,100 levy, up from the previous ₦10,100.
Fuel Prices Affect School Transport
The latest petrol price increases have also created uncertainty around school transportation.
Some private schools are considering increasing the amount parents pay for school buses, while others may reduce or completely suspend their transport services because of rising fuel and maintenance costs.
A school owner in Alagbado, Lagos, has already stopped operating a school bus, leaving parents to make alternative arrangements or send their children to the school’s hostel.
One parent, John Aderiye, said he would rather hire a tricyclist than spend heavily on petrol transporting his child.
“I have decided to save my self needless stress by contracting a tricyclist in my neighbourhood to take my son to and from school. What I will be spending on that monthly is a fragment of what I would have spent on fuelling my car to do so,” he said.
School Owners Defend Fee Increase
The Lagos Chairman of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, Otunba Yusuf Alaka, said school owners were also struggling with increasing operating expenses.
“In fact, the increase ought to be higher than that if the cost of living would be taken into consideration in full force,” he said.
Alaka explained that many schools were dealing with unpaid fees, increasing staff salaries, maintenance expenses, taxes and other operational costs.
He said some schools had millions of naira in outstanding fees owed by parents, making it increasingly difficult to keep institutions running.
Parents Ask Schools to Reduce Fees
However, the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria said many families could no longer cope with the rising costs.
NAPTAN Chairman, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, said parents were already struggling to pay tuition and purchase books for their children.
“School owners have increased fees by between 30 and 40 per cent and many parents are finding it difficult to cope because of the economic situation in the country,” he said.
Ogunbanjo appealed to school owners to limit increases to 20 per cent, noting that many parents had not received comparable increases in their salaries or incomes.
The Nigeria Union of Teachers also urged parents not to withdraw their children from school because of the economic difficulties.
“Yes, things are tough. The economic situation is challenging and many people are struggling but that is not an excuse to withdraw children from school,” NUT Lagos Chairman Hassan Akintoye said.
