The Senate on Tuesday directed the authorities of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) to suspend its recent increase in the tuition fees of the School.
The Red Chamber also mandated its Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFUND to investigate the matter and report back to plenary.
The resolutions followed a motion on a matter of urgent public importance moved by Senator Abubakar Kyari, representing Borno North.
Kyari in his lead debate decried the recent decision by the UNIMAID’s management to increase the registration and other fees of the school from N25,000 to N129,000, an increase of over 400 per cent.
Kyari said: “Half of the men in North-East Nigeria have received no education at all, and this figure rises to over 61 per cent for women.
“It is imperative that schools in the North-East should remain of strategic national interest with overwhelming National Security importance.”
He said education remains a repellent and potent tool to defeat Boko Haram and also revamp the North East from underdevelopment and poverty.
He said that 62 per cent of Nigerian children who are not in school live in Northern Nigeria.
“Borno State has the highest number of people that don’t have access to education due to the Boko Haram crisis in particular,” he said.
He also urged stakeholders in the education sector to ensure that the fee hike is reversed due to the greater need to spread empowerment through education at tertiary levels.
In his contribution, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau. said that there was the need for the Federal Government through the National Universities Commission (NUC), to unify the payment of tuition by federal universities,
He noted that some schools were charging indiscriminately.
The Senate in its resolution, however, mandated its Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFUND, to engage the Ministry of Education and stakeholders such as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), so as to reach a consensus on a harmonised fee for all universities across the country.
Meanwhile, 11 Bills on Tuesday scaled first reading in Senate.
The Bills included the National Commission for Education of Child Destitution Establishment Bill, 2019 sponsored by Senator Aliyu Wamakko, Federal College of Education, Sabin Birini (Establishment) Bill, 2019 by Senator Abdullahi Gobir, Tertiary Education Trust Fund Amendment Bill 2019 by Senator Betty Apiafi, Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2019, by Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, among others.