VolvoS60:



I would like it if they could answer me. They cannot plug the leaks and waste in their porous, inefficient bureaucracies but they consider university education to be the exclusive preserve of the wealthy.



"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist." - Helder Camara

The porous inefficient bureaucracies is a battle to be fought but it still does not mean that tertiary education will be free or should be free.
It is a luxury that plays an important part in our future as a society. Placing the right value will help us redress the imbalance in our educational system.
There are more important issues than even the fees in universities. How in God's green earth does a society that intends to be taken serious end up with a political enforcer like Nyesom Wike as minister for education for over 18 months now? Is that a form of educational Russian roulette?
Educational policy frameworks are such complex and integral parts of societal development,yet we use such positions of power to reward Man Fridays!!
Are these the kind of barbarians you expect to pour 3 trillion naira into education at any level?
Na wa for us o!

bushdoc9919:

To answer your question (partially....and this is not a defense as you think it is!).

1.Lagos will have an IGR of N466billion naira...let's round it up to N500bn

2.Lagos has 10 million people.(2006 CENSUS....might now be 15-20million)..so that amounts to N50,000 per resident if we split the IGR.

3.There are 60000 students....undergrad and post grad in LASU.

4.It costs between N600,000 to N2,000,000 every year to train a student in Nigerian university.

5.Now do the math....based on the N2million figure...... N120,000,000,000(One hundred and twenty billion naira on just LASU...)....which amounts to 25% of the Lagos IGR (And we haven't talked about other costs).

6.Would you spend one quarter of your state budget on just the university?

^^^
Thanks for the statistical breakdown - and don't worry, I am not holding you accountable as defender of the LASG...

I'm not sure I agree with the figures. I really would like to know how the costing was done. While it is clear that the engineering, science & technology, medical sciences, nursing, etc. fields will have higher student costs, I wonder about students in the arts, the humanities and the social sciences. Will their costs rise as high as 600k per annum?

What are the line items in the expense profile per student? That is where the answers lie. I will be very grateful if the full balance sheet and P & L per student could be made available.

P.S. There are times when I have wondered if it would not be beneficial for universities to do away with halls in residence and shift that cost to students IF THEY MUST. Halls of residence can then be converted to commercial use to shore up university finances.

What business do universities have with halls of residence? It's no wonder they don't have any money and I suppose that's expected to subsidized too?

naijababe: What business do universities have with halls of residence? It's no wonder they don't have any money and I suppose that's expected to subsidized too?

I'm pretty sure they are subsidized(i'm not 100% sure). Nigeria is a capitalist country full of socialist citizens.

emiye: These kind of writers were missing when the heavy protest for school reversal was at its peak, how come they suddenly found their pen?


It is always difficult for the democratic elected govt to fail to listen to the voice of the masses, especially when the political class has highly politicised it, Why the writer's view is right, she is not politically correct , if you doubt me take a sample or opinion poll across spectrum of nigerians.


One of the major reasons Fayemi lost in Ekiti was that he increased school fees to over 100,000 naira in Ekiti state university, Infact , it was the youths in ekiti state that dealt him the most serious blow, little wonder his loss margin in the state capital was the most catastrophic. and guess what, i can place a bet that Fayose will reverse the cost, or at best reduce it drastically once he is sworn in, and the majority of the people will hail him as the "man of the people".

Right Emiye.

On one part are the masses, who are in the majority, who want free things even if impractical. But with strong electoral value. They are the people who have voters card, who can endure hours waiting patiently to cast their votes and in some cases stay and risk their lives in the face of threats from armed security agents.

On the other side are the middle to elite class who understand why people have to pay tuition in order to maintain decent quality but, out of which many don't have voters' card, are most like going to be in their houses watching DSTV on election days. All it takes for them to boycott voting is a little inconvenience. God help you if they smell miscreants at the polling booth. Many are even outside the shores of Nigeria as we speak. These are people of understanding but low or zero electoral value.

Yet elections have to be won, it is even worse for you if you don't control federal security apparatus.

Fashola is being reasonable here, he who fights and run away, lives to fight another day. 2015 is around the corner, every hand must be on deck.

ZedIkiiKmiiIKiikiuuu

bushdoc9919:

I haven't....but I am the son of lecturers...and I know that there is more to the story (Farooq Kperogi has a good set of articles on the matter).

But let's be honest.....facilities are bad....and facilities need money. Which govt does not have. (If they did...then the N3trillion promised universities in 2009 would have been no problem).

In earlier posts....I have established that Lagos may need to spend up to 25% of its budget on just the university to ensure that fees stay low. (We have not even mentioned the other state tertiary institutions it owns like the polytechnic!). That's money it does not have...corruption notwithstanding.

So it is either fees go up....or we raise taxes...or we raise education's share of the budget to 30%.

A student on a N25000 BSc cannot compete with a Nigerian with a foreign degree worth N6million per annum.

As Mark Amaza put it in this article: Rich Kid, Poor Kid: The Fallacy Of Educational Subsidies In Nigeria

I don't know your parents field of study. One thing I know is that most lecturers are old fashion when it comes to education

Sir

As an engineering-technologist I can authoritatively tell you that real/computer simulated videos which are cheaper/effective/efficient can replace real engineering-technological equipments to a large extent

For the sciences it can partially replace it. I used the word partial because of the compulsory experimentation skills that must be acquired in order to sharpen ones laboratory skills. But remember, that watching the video is better than the present lecturing system of not having mental picture of what one is being taught.

So my brother

ASUU is unknowning asking the govt to improve an old fashion educational system which is expensive and less effective/efficient.

Finally ask yourself

Why are private higher institutions not yielding desired graduates we desire to see in our nation.

mbulela:
The porous inefficient bureaucracies is a battle to be fought but it still does not mean that tertiary education will be free or should be free.
It is a luxury that plays an important part in our future as a society. Placing the right value will help us redress the imbalance in our educational system.
There are more important issues than even the fees in universities. How in God's green earth does a society that intends to be taken serious end up with a political enforcer like Nyesom Wike as minister for education for over 18 months now? Is that a form of educational Russian roulette?
Educational policy frameworks are such complex and integral parts of societal development,yet we use such positions of power to reward Man Fridays!!
Are these the kind of barbarians you expect to pour 3 trillion naira into education at any level?
Na wa for us o!

^^^^
Rising prices are an inescapable fact of life. Even grizzled old Marxists accept this truth, albeit grudgingly.

What rankles is when ordinary people are compelled to tighten their belts while the powers that be continue to make corpulence a style statement.

It would be easier to justify education subsidy removal if public sector officials cleansed the rot in public sector itself. But they won't do that. That's far too hard. Its far easier to pick on low income demographics who have no power.

And what is sad is that they have the Ijeoma Nwaogugwu's of this world to provide the intellectual cover for their actions.

bushdoc9919:

Sorry to but in....apologies if I seem too persistent.

Well....back when Fashola graduated from Uniben in 1987...there were just slightly over 100,000 Nigerian university students.(When GEJ was a student in the 70's there were 80,000 students nationwide).

Just to show you how numbers have risen...in 2004 at my alma mater...there were 70,000 students.

The problem with subsidizing education in Nigeria is that there are too many students for the subsidies to work.

^^^^
Even in countries with strong institutions, hikes in the cost of education, transport and other basics are fiercely resisted.

The venality of Nigerian public officials is what makes these price hikes doubly galling.

The 'subsidy' on fuel has to go. The 'subsidy' on education has to go. Public enterprises must go. Sales! Everything must go!

The only thing which has refused to 'go' is the remuneration of our public officials. I'm sure you are aware of the public officers pension bills passed in Akwa Ibom and Lagos states (among others). Do those bills approach anything remotely close to an equitable distribution of resources?

mbulela:

I will not be surprised if she privatizes conjugal rights to her partners. The lady sees privatization in everything.

^^^

When Jakande started LASU, it was absolutely free.
Fashola introduced very high fees, can't pay staff salaries on schedule and the place looks rundown. This was a guy who paid Sixteen Naira/session for four years in Benin o!

solomakindees: When Jakande started LASU, it was absolutely free.
Fashola introduced very high fees, can't pay staff salaries on schedule and the place looks rundown. This was a guy who paid Sixteen Naira/session for four years in Benin o!

When Fashola paid 16 Naira, what was the cost of fuel, housing, a bag of cement e.t.c

solomakindees: When Jakande started LASU, it was absolutely free.
Fashola introduced very high fees, can't pay staff salaries on schedule and the place looks rundown. This was a guy who paid Sixteen Naira/session for four years in Benin o!

Yes....Fashola paid N16 back when the number of students in all Nigerian universities would be less than the number of students in UNILAG, OAU and Unibadan combined today.

And Jakande started LASU with 1000 students....and at the tail end of the oil boom.

naijababe: What business do universities have with halls of residence? It's no wonder they don't have any money and I suppose that's expected to subsidized too?

^^^They are heavily subsidized. (At least they were when I was in school)

There was a thriving secondary market for the sale (at a significant markup) of bed spaces in these halls of residence. That's why I'm advocating non-residential universities.

solomakindees: When Jakande started LASU, it was absolutely free.
Fashola introduced very high fees, can't pay staff salaries on schedule and the place looks rundown. This was a guy who paid Sixteen Naira/session for four years in Benin o!

I'd like to know the current value of 16 naira adjusted for inflation sha. Quoting nominal fees is just emotional abeg

Akanbiedu:

Right Emiye.

On one part are the masses, who are in the majority, who want free things even if impractical. But with strong electoral value. They are the people who have voters card, who can endure hours waiting patiently to cast their votes and in some cases stay and risk their lives in the face of threats from armed security agents.

On the other side are the middle to elite class who understand why people have to pay tuition in order to maintain decent quality but, out of which many don't have voters' card, are most like going to be in their houses watching DSTV on election days. All it takes for them to boycott voting is a little inconvenience. God help you if they smell miscreants at the polling booth. Many are even outside the shores of Nigeria as we speak. These are people of understanding but low or zero electoral value.

Yet elections have to be won, it is even worse for you if you don't control federal security apparatus.

Fashola is being reasonable here, he who fights and run away, lives to fight another day. 2015 is around the corner, every hand must be on deck.

The inverse relationship between intellect/exposure and electoral value. Nigerian politicians understand this more than anyone else.

Wow! I said it! finally the voices of the thinkers are echoing. I am glad people are now talking about this, i only hope that it will be heard. Every time, the professionals in Nigeria keeping playing politics with the future of our young people and no body questions it. The mess in our educational system, I keep saying, is not up-to 30% caused by government. We are unfortunate to have sets of university faculties that are as good as the man at Alaba market. Their ignorance, backwardness and fragile ego have caused us alot of damage. Nothing matters to them other than power, money and the bosom of our young girls.

The writer pointed it out exactly how it is. Same is with the admission policy. Universities are bent on creating an extension of the local communities by admitting mainly local applicants. When you see global university ranking, it is not all about how fine the university is, it is not a function of how much the government is giving the schools, factors like level of internationalization, quality of research the faculty are engaged to, among other things.

Now talking about research, the one lecturers have been using it to "chop govt mugu" all these while. Most of the researches conducted by the university lecturers abroad are not funded by government. Presently, I am working as a research assistant with my Prof, and at the same time finishing my master program. The research is funded by WHO. Here, and in most other schools across US, Canada and Europe, Lecturers are ranked, either in terms of pay and position, by the number of grant they have attracted to the department/school, and the quality/quantity of their research works. In fact, not long ago, Some top ranking profs were sacked from Columbia university New-york. The reason was that for some time, they had not attracted any grant to the department. it took the protest of the Alumni, who felt that the profs were wonderful and should not be removed because they did not attract fund. But In Nigeria, lecturers go on strike because government has not funded research for them. when they are ranked low, they blame government.
I am happy you raised this issue, cus I am one of those that look at Lasu and shudder. I expected Fashola, with all his swags, to create a model university that Africans will be proud of. Lagos is too cosmopolitan to follow some local style of university system. In fact, Lasu can really make Unilag look laughable. I don't even want to talk about the rest of the community colleges we have across the country. It's really a shame.