Many Nigerian parents struggling with the harsh economic weather in the country are currently lamenting their inability to meet up with the payment of the fees of their children as schools resume.

Schools in Nigeria resumed across states on Monday, January 6, for a new term after the yuletide, and the resumption necessitated a new regime of fees.

With many families having their children in private schools, the fees expected from them are higher than what parents of pupils in public schools pay.

A school administrator in Surulere, Lagos told BusinessDay that some parents are withdrawing their children to other schools with lesser fees as they could not cope with the fees in the face of surging economic hardship.

According to the administrator, the parents do not even mind that it is second term and not the beginning of a fresh session.

Nigerians are facing extraordinary economic crisis, arising from the removal of fuel subsidies. This has caused the price of petrol pump price to rise by almost 500 percent in a space of one year.

Besides, the liberalisation of the foreign exchange market gave rise to over 100 percent depreciation in the value of the domestic currency within 12 months of its implementation.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been pursuing a contractionary monetary policy in its effort to fend off inflation by reducing money supply. It increased the interest rate from 15.5 percent in October 2023 to 27.25 percent in September 2024, while the headline inflation, stood at 34.6 percent in November 2024.

These policies have reduced the living standards of Nigerians. People must now pay higher prices for food, transportation, energy, health and education.

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This has led to an untold hardship to many Nigerians even as the new year begins.

Lucy Ukachukwu, a civil servant, said her husband has always made it a point of duty to pay up their children’s school fees, but this time around, the situation is different.

“The economic crisis has unleashed untold hardship on almost every family. I won’t blame the schools for increase in fees and cost of stationery because the inflation is an ill wind that blows no one good.

“We just came back from a burial ceremony in the village, coupled with the yuletide expenditure; we’re barely managing not to talk of increased school fees. Our two children are in a private secondary school, and we are considering withdrawing them, except the school is lenient with us,” she said.

James Iniamah, an entrepreneur, said the present economic situation in the country, which was further exacerbated by the two-digit inflation, is having serious impact on his income.

“I’m not finding it easy now, especially as schools have resumed and we are to pay fees; all I’m asking is that the school authorities’ should extend the period of grace for the payment of fees,” he said.

Iniamah further revealed that parents are withdrawing their children from private to public schools.

“Some parents I know are asking that the schools should allowed them to do their payment in installments,” he said.

Bose Adekunle, a mother of three narrated her plight in the face of surging economic crisis amid school resumption.

“We are at a crossroads; the school has increased fees and we are saddled with our house rent. Our rent expires by the end of January, and with the sudden increase in the school fees, we do not even know what to do.

“The house rent has been increased by 40 percent. Last year, we paid N500,000 but now the landlord is demanding N700,000. The schools should be considerate looking at the state of the economy in order not to send our children and wards out of school,” she pleaded.

Although some private schools did not increase fees, due to harsh economy they have increased the cost of stationery and other school needs.

For instance, a school at Okota-Isolo, Lagos, increased cost of its exercise books from N500 to N700 (40 percent), and every student must submit their assignments with the school-branded exercise books.

At the same time, some parents have decided to leave their wards at home for the moment to care about the feeding and shelter as the major priority.

Meanwhile, even some parents whose children are in Lagos State model colleges are not left out of this predicament, as on Sunday, January 5, most model colleges in the state witnessed low resumption of students as the state government insisted on N100,000 boarding fee payment for the second term academic year.

The insistence on the N100,000 by the state government, indicated a massive 185.71 percent increase when compared to the N35,000 paid by parents in the first term of the same academic year.

The government had insisted on N70,000 per term as boarding fee for the students, while the parents’ forum had appealed for between N45,000 to N50,000 per term.

However, some parents who wanted to make payment for the fee through the remita platform introduced by the government noticed that the only option available for them was N100,000, which angered most parents.