ENUGU FAMILIES CRY OUT AS SCHOOL FEES SOAR TO “UNTHINKABLE HEIGHTS”

The new school term has opened with a jolt for parents in Enugu State as tuition bills from private and mission-run schools arrive at eye-watering new levels. Across the metropolis, families who once budgeted modestly for education say they are now “doing the maths twice” to keep their children in class.

Many schools, citing inflation and spiralling overheads, have adjusted their charges upward by between 20 and 50 percent, turning a ₦100,000 fee from last term into a ₦150,000 invoice this term. In parts of Amechi and Trans-Ekulu, the jump is just as dramatic, with parents paying ₦120,000 to ₦150,000 for the same seats their children occupied months ago.

Mrs. Chinwe Okoro, a mother of three, summed up the mood in a chat with Vicilook News: “Last term I paid ₦95,000 per child. This term it’s ₦150,000. I don’t even know how we’ll cope. Everything else is already expensive.”

School proprietors, for their part, point to a cocktail of rising costs — from staff salaries and diesel to multiple government levies — as the reason behind the spikes. “We’re not profiteering, we’re trying to survive,” one administrator explained off-record.

But parents argue that without oversight the hikes feel arbitrary, and more families are already migrating to public schools despite fears of overcrowded classrooms and inconsistent standards.

Education advocates say the crisis underscores the need for:

Transparent fee breakdowns from schools

Active government regulation of tuition increases

Scholarships or subsidies for low-income families

Unless something gives, they warn, quality education could slide further out of reach for the average household in Enugu — turning the dream of a better future into a monthly financial nightmare.

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