Student Loan Scheme: Include private universities’ students – Obasanjo

“That is how they excluded students in private universities
from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and the recent decision to
exclude them from the student’s loan scheme is unfair. These decisions were out
of touch with the current realities of the society and the expectations of the people.

“Many parents struggle to keep their children enrolled in
schools, whether public or private, due to the economic downturn in the
country,” he said.

Recall that the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian
Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, Mr Akintunde Sawyerr, had last week told media
men that students in private institutions would not benefit from the loan
scheme, at least for now.

His argument was that it was a programme for social re-engineering
and redistribution of wealth meant to assist the poor in the society.

According to Sawyerr, though parents of students in private
institutions are also tax payers from which fund for the scheme is sourced,
they should not be seen as being in the same financial conditions as many
parents of students in public schools.

Also, fees paid in private schools are quite higher than
what obtains in public ones, he said.