Elizabeth O.
ASUU Rejects FG’s Student Loan Scheme, Citing Potential Psychological Impact on Students
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Bauchi Zone, has voiced its opposition to the student loan scheme proposed by the federal government.
During a scholar-ship-for-indigent-student program held at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, Lazarus Maig-oro, the ASUU Bauchi Zonal Coordinator, expressed the union’s concerns. Maig-oro questioned who would bear the burden of repaying the loans and highlighted the potential psychological trauma that students may experience while still pursuing their studies, which could negatively impact their academic performance.
The prospect of graduating with a loan of N4 million or more, without the means to repay it, would inflict further psychological distress on students. Additionally, the stringent conditions attached to accessing the loan would effectively force some students to drop out of school. The current rise in public university fees nationwide has already prevented many students from resuming their studies.
ASUU Bauchi Zone is in the process of gathering data on the number of students who may potentially abandon their education at the end of the current session, with the aim of persuading the government to reconsider its decision on the loan scheme and instead provide grants.
The ASUU Zonal coordinator emphasized that as they teach students in the classrooms, they witness the distress experienced by many due to the harsh economic realities in the country. Federal universities, in particular, have seen the government relinquish its constitutional responsibility of funding universities, leaving it to the discretion of university governing councils to determine funding, resulting in some students dropping out of school.
