Parents who have their wards in Federal government owned schools otherwise known as Unity schools are very unhappy over recent developments by the Federal Government.
A circular sent to the parents on June 1st this year stated that fees have been increased from N20,000 to N75,000, that is about 375% increment.
At the end of its National Executive meeting yesterday August 7th, the president of the National Parents and Teachers Association of the Federal Government Colleges, Gabriel Nnaji, said it is untimely and insensitive of FG to increase fees in this period of economic hardship.
Nnaji threatened that if nothing was done about the situation parents would be forced to withdraw their children from the schools.
His statement read in part, “The increase of school fees from about N20,000 to about N75,000 in unity colleges is most untimely and insensitive. An average Nigerian worker whose minimum wage is N18,000 and who has one or two children in the unity colleges will be unable to keep his or her child or children in the unity colleges. The recent increase is a negation of the policy or principle that established unity colleges which is to make basic and secondary education affordable and accessible to an average Nigerian student,” he said.