The Federal Government may have hinted that students in private-higher institutions are qualified to access its loan.
Several conjectures have trailed public announcement of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s signing of Student Loan Bill into law, with suggestions that it was primarily for public schools’ students.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew Adejo, may have put the speculation to bed on Wednesday at a press conference where he said thier private counterparts would be accommodated in the loan scheme scheduled to commence in September.
“Without trying to say what the committee will do, we don’t want to make it something that only people who want to go to public schools will benefit from. Anybody that is indigent can benefit. Private schools already pay tuition so you have to give somebody who wants to go to a private school the opportunity to get the loan and pay tuition,” Adejo stated.
He equally cleared the air on rumoured planned by the federal government to introduce tuition fees in public schools arising from the scheme saying, “Government alone cannot foot the bill for education and that is why we are doing public-private partnerships. Universities are autonomous but what they don’t have yet is financial autonomy. When they get that, they will be able to answer the questions on the introduction of tuition.”
