Reps Seeks To Abolish Acceptance Fee Into Tertiary Institutions

The federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities’ Commission (NUC) have been advised to immediately abolish the payment of acceptance fees into tertiary institutions.

The advice was issued by the House of Representatives during Wednesday’s plenary

This resolution follows a motion raised by Representatives Chinedu Martins.

He attributed the poor access to tertiary education by Nigerians to the requirement for payment of the non-refundable acceptance fees as a condition for admission.

Martins expressed worry that if the practice is not checked, the poor in the country will be unable to access tertiary education, especially considering examples of schools demanding as high as N70,000 as admission fees, compared to the minimum wage of N30,000.

According to him, the proportion of the people attending universities is grossly minimal compared to the larger population unlike what is obtained in other countries.

“Additional Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) shows that, between 2010 and 2015, of the 10 million applicants that sought admissions into tertiary institutions, only 26 percent gained admissions, indicating that about 75 percent of the applicants fail to gain admissions every year; thus also reinforcing the fact that, access to tertiary education is low in Nigeria,” he said.