Falana Insists FG, Lagos N100,000 School Fees Hike Is Illegal

The Federal and Lagos State governments’ recent increases in school fees have been denounced by human rights attorney Femi Falana, SAN, as “illegal.”

The Federal Government increased Unity Schools’ fees by more than 120 percent in July 2023, from N45,000 to N100,000 each term. In a same vein, the Lagos State Government recently declared that the prior N35,000 charge would henceforth only be N100,000 for state-owned boarding institutions.

With a minimum wage of N70,000, Falana bemoaned that workers could no longer afford to send even one child to Unity Schools or secondary schools in Lagos State, seeing the hikes as a breach of the Child’s Rights Law.

Falana has promised to appeal the ruling to the relevant High Court. He made the point that every kid has the right to free and compulsory education from primary to junior high school under the kid’s Rights Act and the Lagos State Child’s Rights Law. It is therefore unlawful to charge junior secondary school pupils in Unity Schools and Lagos secondary schools N100,000.

Falana also emphasized that on July 10, 2024, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), disclosed that numerous state governments have not been able to access the nearly N45.7 billion in matching grants intended for the implementation of Universal Basic Education (UBE) between 2020 and 2023.