ASUU urges govt to raise varsity funding

National president, Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke and All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Rivers State, Mr Tonye Cole, has told the Nigerian government to retain talents and increase the budgetary allocations of universities.

Speaking to our correspondent on the state of the country’s education as Nigeria celebrates 63rd Independence anniversary on October 1, Osodeke maintained that only through the increased budgetary allocations to universities that the issue of fee increment across campuses in the country would be solved or reduced.

Recently, universities across the country have increased obligatory fees astronomically, which led to several protests by students whose parents earned less than N40,000 per month and claimed it would be difficult to afford the newly introduced huge fees.

He said, “The issue of fee increment is a major issue as  many students will drop out of school. Most parents will not be able to afford their children’s fees. Since the government says don’t increase fees and universities are increasing fees, they should intervene as part of their palliatives because the vice-chancellors are being pushed to the wall so they have no choice but to increase fees. “Government should increase budgetary allocations to universities so that VCs will have enough funds to run the universities.”

Source: punch