The federal government’s student loan program has been rejected by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Bauchi Zone, which argues that non-refundable grants ought to be awarded to Nigerian students in lieu of loans.
Speaking on Saturday at an Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) scholar-ship program for independent students, Lazarus Maig-oro, the ASUU Bauchi Zonal Coordinator, revealed this.
What happens to people who are unable to access it? The psychological distress the students would experience as a result of the loan while they are still enrolled in classes will have a detrimental effect on their performance.
It will be another psychological torment for students to graduate with a loan of N4 million or more and not be able to repay it.”
Furthermore, failing to meet the strict requirements tied to the loan effectively amounts to dropping out of school for individuals who are unable to receive it. Many students are currently unable to restart their studies due to the increase in tuition fees or charges at public universities around the nation, he continued.
In addition to the 12 scholarships already granted by ASUU National in the six universities that make up the Bauchi zone, ASUU Bauchi zone is giving 19 indigent students scholarships for this year, 2023,” he continued.
In an effort to force the government to reconsider its decision to replace loans with grants, ASUU Bauchi Zone is gathering data on students who are most likely to leave school at the end of the current term.
“I can authoritatively say without mincing words that as we teach these students in the classrooms, we notice quite a number who are distressed due to the very harsh economic realities of our country,” made clear by the ASUU Zonal Coordinator.
“In the case of Federal Universities, the government appears to have abdicated its constitutional duty to provide money for the universities and instead left it up to the individual university governing councils to evaluate at their discretion, forcing some students to drop out of school.”
Making the government fulfill its own obligations to pay for higher education was one of the reasons ASUU went on strike for eight months in 2022, but regrettably,