Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Federal Government confirmed, at the weekend, it has reduced the cost of tuition fees and other payment for students at its 104 Colleges, also known as Unity Schools.
Official of the Federal Ministry of Education, who declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak on the matter, said the fees was reviewed downwards; from over N70, 000 to N65,000.
Government said the objective is to increase the desire of parents to enrol their children into unity schools so they can acquire quality and affordable education being offered in the school, and also, get familiar with people from other parts of teh country.
Meanwhile government said it has increased the carrying capacity of its schools. Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, who spoke through the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Sonny Echono, said they have used different incentives, including downward review of tuition fees to lure more children to unity schools.
He said: “We received several complaints of parents not being able to pay the tuition fees for reason that it is high. The government critically looked at their complaints and decided to slashed the cost of the tuition fees to allow increased participation.”
The minister discouraged parents from insisting their children must be admitted into a particular school, and stresed that it is unhelpful to the children, who are supposed to have friends across Nigeria, and also, know little things about other people from other parts of Nigeria.
“The essence of unity schools was to provide a platform for children from across Nigeria to study under one roof, make friends and truly understand people from other parts of Nigeria. Anything other than that is against the intentions of unity schools,” he reiterated.