By 
By Abiodun OBA
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Bauchi Zone, has called on the Federal Government to review its students’ loan scheme and replace same with non-refundable grants.
The ASUU Bauchi Zonal Coordinator, Lazarus Maig-oro, advised while speaking at a scholarship-for-indigent-student programme held at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi on Saturday.
He said: “The question is: who will pay the loan?
What is the fate of those who cannot access it? The psychological trauma the students will be subjected to due to the loan while still on studies will affect their performance negatively.”
Lazarus Maigoro added that: “The fact that they will graduate with a loan of N4 million and above without the capacity to pay back will be another psychological torture for students.
“Furthermore, those who cannot access the loan due to the stringent conditions attached virtually means dropping out of school. Currently, in view of the hike in school fees or charges in public Universities all over the country, many students have not been able to resume,” he added.
He further said that: “ASUU Bauchi Zone is working on getting the statistics of students who may likely drop out of school at the end of the current session with the hope of making government review its decision on the issue of the loan and replace it with grants.”
The ASUU Zonal coordinator stressed that: “I can authoritatively say without mincing words, that as we teach these students in the classrooms, we notice quite a number who are distressed due to the very harsh economic realities of our country.”
According to him, “In the case of Federal Universities, the government seem to have abandoned its constitutional responsibility of funding Universities and left it at the discretion of the various Governing Councils of the Universities to review it at will thereby making some students drop out of school.”
He also said that: “One of the reasons ASUU went on strike in 2022 for eight months was to make government live up to its own responsibilities of funding University education, but unfortunately parents and students did not support the union to fight this menace collectively and now, students and parents have become victims of what ASUU tried to prevent.”
“For this year, 2023, ASUU Bauchi zone is giving 19 indigent students scholarship apart from the 12 already awarded by ASUU National in the six Universities that constitutes Bauchi zone” he added.
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