Atiku to Tinubu: Reverse WAEC, NECO fees hike or risk explosion in out-of-school children

By Omeiza Ajayi ABUJA: Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has condemned the Federal Government’s continued escalation of the cost of public education, describing the recent increase in fees for Federal Unity Colleges and the reported approval of a uniform ₦50,000 examination fee for West African Examinations Council WAEC and National Examinations Council NECO candidates from 2027 as cruel.

Noting that the policy is economically insensitive and fundamentally incompatible with government’s constitutional responsibility to make education accessible to every Nigerian child, the Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC said it is unconscionable that at a time when Nigerian families are battling record inflation, soaring food prices, rising transportation costs, crippling electricity tariffs, stagnant incomes and widespread unemployment, the President Bola Tinubu administration has chosen to make education even more expensive.

Instead, we shall reverse policies that place education beyond the reach of ordinary families, expand access to quality education at every level, increase the carrying capacity of our tertiary institutions, and ensure that every Nigerian child, regardless of background, has a fair opportunity to learn, excel and fulfil his or her God-given potential”, he added.