There is no denying the fact that quality education is expensive. Educational infrastructure often costs a fortune, as do the human resources that make quality education possible.
Following the uproar that greeted the decision of the federal government to increase the registration fee for WAEC and NECO from N27,000 to N50,000, the government backed down, deciding to maintain the old registration fees for now. As commendable as the decision was, it speaks of the kind of hastiness that underpins indecisiveness. Why didn’t the government consult widely before pronouncing the decision only to hastily beat a retreat when Nigerians railed against it?
As for those Nigerians who joined the chorus criticizing the decision, it is important to remember that good things don’t come cheap. In a country where poverty is used as a rod for everyone’s back, it is easy to chalk everything down to poverty while completely missing the point.
As far as education is concerned in Nigeria, the danger has long been clear that an entire generation now stands a real chance of missing out on the kind of quality education that crucially formed the backbone of the country as it sought to move on from years of debilitating colonialism.
