Education
AN academic ,Dr. Hassan Langa, has decried the high rate at which university students and those of other tertiary institutions are dropping out of school.
Langa , a former Dean ,School of Science, Federal College of Education , Gombe , decried the trend while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN)on Sunday in Gombe.
He said the number of tertiary institution students who had dropped out of school in the last one year is scary.
According to Langa, many students are abandoning their studies because they can no longer afford to pay the exorbitant fees charged by their institutions.
Langa said the arbitrarily high fees charged by many institutions had made many students to give up their dreams.
“I give you the example in College of Education, Gombe. The Biology Department alone used to have more than 1,000 students , but this year, the College as a whole matriculated just a little above 1,000 students.
“That number of matriculated students is not up to what the Biological Science Department used to have.
“Many could not make matriculation because they could not afford the increased fees of N30,000 .And if students are leaving school because they cannot pay N30,000 ,what do you expect in universities charging between N30,000 and N100,000?”,he said.
Langa added that departments in the school had increased registration fees from N5000 to N40,000 ,saying the increase had exacerbated dropout rate.
“As I speak to you now , there are departments that used to charge N5,000 as departmental fees, but are now charging over N40,000. Students are dropping out because they cannot meet up.
“If these students are not in school, where do they go ? Street ofcourse.They then take to hooliganism and other social vices.
“The government should do something on this as a matter of urgency”,he said.
He said FCE Gombe lecturers were threatening to go on strike over the issue and others,urging the government to respond to the matter with dispatch.
Speaking on how the education sector has fared in the last one year ,another academic ,Dr Bachama Yusuf ,said the sector had not recorded any remarkable improvement.
Yusuf, who lectures Economics at Gombe State University, said the expectations of stakeholders had not been met despite the fact that the Minister of Education is from the system.
“A lot of things need to be done.if not, the system will collapse,” he told NAN.
Also giving an assessment of the sector in the last one year , Dr. Shehu El-Rashid, Chairman, Association of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Federal University of Kashere (FUK) ,said the sector had recorded some positive developments since President Bola Tinubu assumed office in 2023.
According to him ,the present administration is trying its best to address some nagging issues in the sector.
“Even though we are yet to arrive, but we can see some steps forward.
“Recently ,the government brought out guidelines for university’s exit from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), which is a good development .
“Also, they have reduced the backlog of salaries, which were not settled by the previous government.They have also inaugurated governing councils of universities, after they were dissolved 11 months ago”,he said.
He ,however ,urged government to properly fund universities and address outstanding demands of lecturers so as not to threaten industrial harmony (NAN)
F.A
May 27, 2024
Tags: Don Drop out rate Hassan Langa tertiary institutions
