KEY POINTS

• Private school proprietors face skyrocketing operational costs due to the petrol price hike.
• Teachers are increasingly opting for part-time roles to make ends meet.
• Parents fear rising transport costs could push more children out of school.

As the parents, teachers and owners of schools across the country prepare for the commencement of the 2024/2025 academic session, there is intense pressure due to the recent increase in the pump prices of petrol. Since the fuel prices were increased from N580 to N855 per liter, the education sector struggles with staggering costs that may disrupt the new academic session.

The situation is worse for private school proprietors, for they have informed the parents about the school fees for the new session without knowing that there would be a surge in petrol prices. This situation has plunged many school owners into a dilemma of having to deal with rising expenses with no feasible remedy.

One school owner noted, “We provided parents with school fees some months ago…With fuel prices at this level, how do we explain these extra costs to parents?”

Teachers Adapting Through Part-Time Roles

For instance, in some regions in Nigeria, the pump price of petrol has now risen to N1,200 per litre making daily transport a nightmare for parents and teachers. Because of this sudden increase in transportation costs, educators especially those in private schools, have taken on part-teaching as a means of survival. Also, qualified and experienced teachers majoring in high-stakes subjects such as English and Mathematics have decided to teach in more than one school to increase their earnings.

Gabriel, a Mathematics teacher in Lagos, said “I now teach in several schools because one school’s salary is not enough to pay all the bills, I organize my timetable in such a way that no school is at a disadvantage and the schools have no problem as long as they are getting their money’s worth.”

According to a report by Vanguard, teachers in public schools are also struggling but they do not have as many choices as their counterparts in private schools. Another participant, Akinleye, a teacher at a secondary school in Lagos State, emphasized how an increase in the cost of transport is contributing to more stress. 

He added with pain in his voice, “We can’t work part-time like private school teachers. And the buses provided for us have all but disappeared, leaving us to fend for ourselves.”

Parents Scramble to Cope with Rising Transport Costs

Even school owners themselves are not spared. They had to reassess their logistics. Mrs. Gladys Grimes who owns schools in Lagos had already stopped her school bus services several years back because of skyrocketing costs and bad road conditions. Now, other proprietors have started doing the same as well. Enlarging hostel facilities is gradually proving to be a more viable option, though the overheads incurred to manage these hostels cannot be overlooked.

To ease the pressure on educators, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has recently made a demand for the introduction of a Hardship Allowance given the hike in the cost of transport. According to Dr. Mike Ene the secretary general of the NUT, ‘‘teachers are already under so much pressure and without any assistance or support in place, education standards will further decline”. “A teacher cannot teach effectively if he or she is struggling to make ends meet to cater for the cost of tuition.”

Parents are equally worried and many of them are now trying to seek schools near their homes in order to avoid the high transport charges. Alhaji Haruna Danjuma, President of the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) warned that there is going to be an increase in out-of-school children due to a hike in fuel prices in Nigeria.

“If parents cannot afford transport, how are they going to take their children to school? Many may drop out in this situation,” Danjuma noted,  appealing to the government for intervention and support measures aimed at families and students.

This fuel crisis has gradually developed from an economic challenge to being a threat to the Nigerian education system as schools re-open. If no action is taken, the difficulties arising from the increase in the petrol price may greatly affect the academic year and negatively impact student learning.