The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has said it will rub minds with the Federal Government later in the week over the exorbitant cost of funding private university education in the country.
It would be record that the Federal Executive Council approved the establishment of nine new private universities on Wednesday, February 25, 2015.
Speaking to Punch, the President of NANS, Tijani Usman lauded the Federal Government for approving the universities.
Usman said: “It is a good thing. We talked about it recently. We had discussed with the President even before now. We need to have better, qualitative education. We need to have more institutions of higher learning. The private institutions have been on our necks so we put pressure on the Federal Government to give them the same approval. We are happy that they have approved them.
“More Nigerian students will now begin to look to private universities with the hope that the fees will be as modest as they can afford.
“I have discussed with the Minister (of Education) on this note and I will be meeting with him by Monday or Tuesday on the same issue to finalise the matter.”
The NANS Presidentshowed his displeasure over the failure ratio of people who write the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations but could not gain admission.
He said: “A lot of people have been applying for JAMB. The exam costs each candidate about N5,000. If people will apply for JAMB yearly and we do not have universities that can accommodate them, then it will amount to JAMB exploiting the students.
“If one million people apply for JAMB, at the end of the day, maybe just 50,000 will be accommodated in the system. We then find that the number of students that are out of school continues to climb gradually, leading to other problems.”
