EDUCATION OF DEBT: Tinubu’s Ruinous Loan Scheme in Public Education
President Bola Tinubu, in his Independence Day speech on October 1, 2025, stated that over 500,000 students had benefitted from the Students’ Loan Scheme. This praise of the loan scheme is usually the chorus of every supporter of the administration, in an attempt to whitewash an administration that has failed colossally. This loan scheme, touted as a major achievement of the Tinubu government, further shows, in crystal-clear terms, the Tinubu government’s failure. No meaningful government would celebrate turning citizens into debtors, especially students who are mostly not economically engaged. But this is the tragedy Tinubu and his praise singers are attempting to force on Nigerians as a major achievement; a tragedy of turning over 500,000 students to debtors in a society with a growing rate of unemployment and impoverishment of the mass majority.
By Adaramoye Michael Lenin, ERC National Mobilisation Officer
The reason for this is partly because the government has nothing worth noting as an achievement. For public education, the reality is not just a continuation of the pitiable condition of public education; the Tinubu government has added the burden of exorbitant school fees and debt to it. The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) noted right from its conception that the Students’ Loan Scheme is nothing but an attempt to turn students into debtors, while providing an escape route for the government to abandon its responsibility of providing quality education to citizens. Since its introduction of the loan scheme, administrators of tertiary institutions have astronomically increased their fees, in some cases by between 500 and 1000 percent.
LOAN SCHEME = MORE OUT-OF-SCHOOL STUDENTS
So far, according to a report by Guardian newspaper on August 26, 2025, N86.3 billion had been disbursed to thousands of beneficiaries. However, the fact is that a much larger number of students could not get this loan. Yet, these students have to pay school fees, which have become outrageous. It would not be surprising if the number of students who have dropped out of school due to financial difficulty since the inception of the loan scheme has increased. This is not mere speculation – the board of NELFUND declared in July 2025 that it has rejected loan applications from schools where outrageous increments have been made recently, because it affects the operations of the scheme. The consequence of this for students is inaccessibility to the loan scheme and the burden of outrageous fees.
Therefore, it is no gainsaying that under this condition, that the scheme purportedly made for accessibility to education, in the end, has become a hindrance to education; thereby, defeating its purpose. This is not a strange paradox. This is one of the things the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) warned against, and why we strongly believe the student loan scheme would generate more problems for the education sector. An increment in fees by administrators of tertiary institutions has been on a sporadic rise since the inception of the Loan scheme. Despite this, there has been no improvement in the quality of education; necessary facilities are either absent or in decrepit condition, while education workers continue to lament about poor working conditions. The entire talk about the achievements of the Tinubu government in public education is deceptive and false. In reality, public education continues to wallow in ruins, with education taken further away from children of the working masses.
TISSF IS A FURTHERANCE OF AN ATTEMPT TO ABYSMALLY UNDERFUND PUBLIC EDUCATION
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) took the decision to reject its inclusion in the TISSF scheme of the Tinubu government at its National Executive Committee meeting. This decision was communicated at a press briefing held on August 22, 2025. The Tertiary Institutions Staff Support Fund (TISSF) is a replica of the Students’ Loan. The introduction of the TISSF is another effort by the Tinubu administration to further plunge the education sector into crisis. Already, the students’ loan scheme has reduced students to debtors, while the authorities of tertiary institutions jack up fees. The TSSIF is equally an attempt to turn education workers into debtors. If this is not opposed, the education sector would become a ‘debt sector’, with both students and education workers plunged into lifelong debts. We urge other staff unions of tertiary institutions to join in voice with ASUU to reject this loan scheme.
Over the years, education workers have been agitating for improvements in their working conditions vis-à-vis the revitalisation of tertiary institutions. The Tinubu government has signed an agreement with ASUU on better pay and condition. From experience, there is no guarantee that it will be fully implemented. Worse, for other workers’ unions in the tertiary education, there is no yet agreement. Hence, there is possibility of the sector being plunged again into criss. The fact is that public education is in near collapse, yet the government is doing little or nothing to ameliorate this decaying condition of public education. Despite this, administrators of tertiary institutions, in a bid to cover up the failure of the government to adequately fund public education, continue to astronomically increase the school fees of students.
The solution to this crisis can never be the introduction of loan schemes. To make education accessible to Nigerians, the genuine step to take is to drastically reduce the fees being paid by students and make them affordable to the vast majority. To be clear, Nigeria has enough resources to ensure free and quality education for all interested Nigerians. For instance, by placing all political office holders and top government functionaries on the same salary scheme as Nigerian workers and use democratically controlled public works and not contract system for projects, a substantial amount can be freed up to contribute to the fund needed to provide quality education for all and also improve the health sector and other sectors in decrepit conditions. This is in addition to the nationalisation and working people’s democratic management of the commanding heights of economy, something that will help recover the huge wealth of the society in the hands of a few and make it available for the benefit of all. Therefore, that Nigerians don’t enjoy free and quality education and other social benefits is never because the resources to make them possible are unavailable, but rather it is because we have a ruinous ruling class that subscribes to pro-capitalist ideas of placing collective resources required for the good of society into the hands of a few through anti-poor policies and corrupt practices.
THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE TO TINUBU’S LOAN SCHEME – FOR A UNITED STRUGGLE NOW!
The alternative to the ‘debt policy’ of the Tinubu government via loan schemes is proper funding of the education sector and the democratic management of institutions. By democratic management, we mean the active participation of education workers and students in the decision-making organs of public institutions through their elected representatives. For this to be possible, a united struggle of education workers and students is needed. There is a need to demand the conversion of the loan scheme to a grant for students. Also, the demands of ASUU, SSANU, NASU, ASUP, NAAT and other education workers’ unions must be met, and the government must also be made to commit to adequate funding of education. Such a struggle must also demand the crashing of school fees nationwide – no institution must charge students above the national minimum wage. These, and many more, are the demands for students and workers to fight for. Without a united and consistent struggle to resist all the attacks on public education, the Tinubu government would continue its attacks on public education.
ERC email: [email protected]