26th September, 2021
Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai has revealed that the state government would not reduce or reverse the new regime of tuition fees for students of Kaduna State University (KASU).
El-Rufai said this on Saturday at the fourth convocation of the university held at the Tafawa Balewa Way Main Campus.
He said the state needs an innovative mix of financing sources for tertiary education.
He said the need for this informed the State Executive Council approval of new tuition fees for all the state-owned tertiary institutions.
El-Rufai noted that he would support free education at the tertiary level only if the government can consistently provide the investments needed to deliver quality tertiary education.
He noted that we are no longer in the 1960s, 70s or 80s when the government practically delivered free tertiary education.
The governor said governments now have severe resource constraints and have many more students to cater for.
“So while the government guarantees free education for the first 12 years of education, up to the end of SS3, it has to adopt other options for funding tertiary education,” the governor said.
“The economic situation and the financial resources available to the government require that the government, parents and students come together to fund tertiary education.
“The government pleads for the understanding of parents and students to make this partnership work,” he said.
In June, students protested the tuition fee hike at KASU.
Students are now to pay between N300,000 and N400,000 per year, from N36,000.