I have read various articles where churches use donations also known as “seeds” by its church members to build schools especially universities, and they are being criticized for the fact that over 80% of the church members won’t eventually be able to afford the school fees of the universities.
Well, I’m writing not to take sides with neither the critics nor the churches but to really ask “What is a university education all about” and “How cheap should it be?”
(As I do not like to keep my blog posts long I’d really dived straight to the points).
In tertiary education, analytical skills take precedence over the ability to memorize. Hence, for a successful academic result, students must strive hard and utilize all possible resources.
I can confidently say in ALL universities in nigeria its just the other way round, you actually have to memorize to have successful academic results. If you totally disagree with me I opened to your comments!
How Cheap should it be?
I cant start to calculate how much school fees should be per head in every school (the only calculation I do is when I’m solving circuit problems sorry) but I can tell these standard facts: to run a standard department should cost you $90,000 (N14,400,000) annually and for science departments, to equip its lab at start-up costs average of $750,000 (N120mil) and with over a $20,000 (N3,200,000) yearly maintenance cost.
I went to a Federal University, UNILAG and studied Engineering, which undoubtedly has one of the best engineering labs n academic infrastructure in the country, but I still used equipment manufactured in 1966 and bought by the school in 1980 something!
I paid a little less than $300 annually…accomodation,lab fees, medical fees inclusive. Although the school has a large number of students (over 36,000) that collectively without government funds, fees can raise a large chunk of dollars but can that now be compared to these private universities? Do we prefer having univerisities with low fees where children can go and while away time without learning anything “new”(because most of the things taught are so outdated). Because I have met many “graduates” that I keep saying to myself there no how this person went to school!
All I’m saying, maybe these churches didnt give them the download before time (anyways the average nigerian christian does not like hearing the real truth in the first place), but I believe the churches are doin a lot for the people by making the school fees as high as N500k – N750k ironically, maybe quality of the education has to increase but as for school fees being cheaper I don’t think its a good idea.
Posted from WordPress for BlackBerry.
