Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC Atiku Abubakar, has warned that the new N50,000 examination fee for candidates sitting for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination and the National Examinations Council examinations will increase Nigeria out-of-school population.
Atiku, said the new fee will deny millions of children access to education.
He described it as economically insensitive and inconsistent with the government’s constitutional obligation to make education accessible to every Nigerian child.
Reacting via a statement issued on Sunday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former vice president said the Tinubu-led government is imposing additional financial burdens on families already struggling under the weight of inflation, rising food prices, high transportation costs, electricity tariff increases and widespread unemployment.
“It is unconscionable that at a time when Nigerian families are battling record inflation, soaring food prices, rising transportation costs, crippling electricity tariffs, stagnant incomes and widespread unemployment, the Tinubu administration has chosen to make education even more expensive,”
Atiku said.He argued that education remains the most effective instrument for breaking the cycle of poverty and warned that increasing the cost of schooling would further widen inequality.“
A government that genuinely believes in the future of its people does not erect financial barriers between children and education. It removes them. Education is not a privilege reserved for the wealthy; it is the birthright of every Nigerian child and the foundation upon which prosperous nations are built,” he stated.
The ADC chieftain noted that the proposed examination fee and higher Unity School charges were particularly troubling because they come at a time Nigeria is grappling with one of the world’s largest out-of-school children population.
