Foundation Urges El-Rufai to Reduce Fees, Offers Scholarships to Indigent Students
John Shiklam
The Kaduna State-based Marshall Katung Foundation (MKF) has called on the state Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, to reduce tuition fees in state government-owned tertiary institutions to enable indigent students acquire education.
The Founder of MKF, Mr. Sunday Katung, a former member of House of Representatives and the state deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 elections, made the appeal at a news conference yesterday in Kaduna.
Katung disclosed that the foundation would give scholarships to vulnerable students in 10 local government areas in the state.
The state government recently increased tuition fees in its tertiary institutions amid public outcry and protests by students of the Kaduna State University (KASU) and the College of Education Gidan Waya.
According to Katung, the increment in tuition fees came amid global economic contraction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that low income families are the worst hit.
Besides, he said: “The pervasive insecurity in our state forms the biggest basis upon which we are appealing to the state government to reduce the school fees so that the children of the poor can have the opportunity to get education.
“Access to affordable education should be seen as the welfare responsibility of a state to its citizens and not to be turned into a profit making venture.”
According to him, “leaders who were educated for free in the past have a moral obligation of ensuring that school fees do not stop anyone from being educated.”
He said his foundation had decided to compliment the efforts of the people of goodwill that are interested in improving the educational standard of the country by initiating a strategy to help vulnerable students pay their school fees.
The foundation boss added that a dedicated website with a portal had been created to enable eligible students to apply for scholarship.
Katung said further that the second phase of the scholarships would focus on students studying in other tertiary institutions.
